much better

This morning was the first morning of my solo workout, and I actually enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I got to pick the order of the machines, and I even added some extra time to the cardio workout. I think that my bitterness and stress the past couple of days has been due to lack of workout. After my run this morning, I felt MUCH better. Sometimes I need to step back and refocus. Anyway, this week I started the SELF challenge. I have done it for the past three years and this year I am determined to win a prize! I figure I work out all the time, one of these years I'm bound to win something (watch me win the dumb prize).
I am revamping my mp3 player. I think I only have 45 minutes worth of songs on it, so everytime I workout I am running to the same music. I am on a quest for suggestions since I'm terrible with thinking of fun music.
I just got off the phone with Wen, and earlier this morning I had an im chat with Ciruc. Wen and I decided that this summer we will have to find (or create) fun outfits for Delaney and Alison so that they can learn to be like their mother and their aunties (this will of course involve some dancing). Ciruc and Bri are dropping his car off tonight and then they will be back on Sunday. Brian starts work on Monday!!!

Stress...

So I thought that the end of last week would bring the end of my stress level; I couldn't be more incorrect! I have my interview paper due on Thursday. I just finished my interview today, so I will be working on that paper this evening. Carl is going through the job hunt process, so that stresses me out also. We are trying to pay off debt and budget so that we can meet some of our goals in the next few years. I have a much bigger paper due in two weeks, but i'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with it because, like my interview paper, I feel like I might be going into the situation blindly. Thursday, I am going to Annapolis with my leadership group, so I'm trying to tie up loose ends and get things ready for Brian by Friday. I also need to catch up on some readings....obviously blogging is not helping the situation, so I'm off!

and the pressure is on...

So now I remember why its so difficult to be a working mom earning her masters degree: class assignments! This Thursday I have my first assignment due. An interview paper. I had a difficult time finding someone to interview, and I'm having an even more difficult time thinking up interview questions (I honestly don't know what exactly the purpose of this paper is). Then, two week after Thursday, I have a HUGE paper due. I have to write an 8 page paper about a topic of my choice, but I have to talk about research methods...since none of what we are reading seems to have anything to do with research methods, again I feel a bit in the dark.
Please don't make this so hard that I'll have to take the class over again....
I can keep up with the reading, and I can complete assignments that I understand, its these assignments that I don't get that are the hard part...
Wish me luck!!

What a week!

This has been my busiest week in quite some time (so I was not thinking when I drank too much which lead to me staying up most of the night on Saturday). Monday was fine, except Carl came home from work very late without calling, so of course I had to wait up for him. Tuesday I went to the gym at 6:45 am, worked all day, worked a fair, and arrived home at 9:45 pm. Wednesday, I went to the gym again, and while going on a desparate hunt for a HRD professional to use for my paper due next week, I put in another full day plus a late meeting and a chat session from 7-9pm. While participating in the chat, I was working on the lectures from two of my classes. Woohoo, this morning I woke up at 8 (which was soooo nice) and started working on my lecture responses. I came into work at 12:30 because I have an AP presentation to give this evening. In between work in the presentation, I hope to #1 stop at Target to pick up some milk for the girls and #2 get some reading done for my classes. I am soo excited that tomorrow is Friday!!! I need to spend some quality time with the girls and Carl. Tomorrow night we are headed to happy hour with Michael and then off to potentially buy some cleats. Here's to hoping that Carl is able to find a new job with better hours (and ideally better pay as well).....

strange 80s movie

This morning, in the locker room, I was met with a strange 80s movie moment. As I walked into the shower, there was a girl, totally naked taking a shower under one of the showers without curtains (all the curtain showers were available). I thought it was a bit awkward as I pulled down the shower curtains around me and started to turn on the water. Even naked girl isn't this naked. Shortly after my shower, as I was putting on my clothes (next to a covered up original naked girl), new naked girl was drying her hair and putting her make-up in front of a full length mirror wearing only her white cotton underwear. Revenge of the Nerds much? She worked on this the entire time I was in the locker room....

Things you Learn over the Weekend

1. Car places suck. After taking the jetta to the dealerships on 3 different occasions for the same problem, they finally fixed the car properly (the problem was what we had expected all along).
2. It is imperative that you eat a good dinner before drinking wine.
3. Wine hangovers are the worst!
4. My daughters will definitely be needing a pet soon.
5. I am not 19 anymore, so I am not able to operate on little sleep....

And another one bites the dust...

So I have some sad news to report, Michael will no longer be working with me. He took a job (at a mortgage company), and I'm kind of sad. I won't have him as my workout buddy anymore:( My job is strange in that I see a lot of people come and go, and in some ways, that sucks! Hopefully, Michael will stick to his word and keep in touch.

This morning, in the shower at the gym (a great place to do some thinking), I realized how great I feel after I work out. This morning Michael and I really pushed ourselves and my shower afterwards felt great! I'm wondering how great I'll feel later today...
I'm working a half day from home this afternoon....Carl's lovely company made him come in to work today. They announced this at 3:30 pm yesterday, which gave us no time to make arrangements unfortunately (clearly they have absolutely no family friendly policies in place at all). Although I know that this is not Carl's fault, I do tend to get frustrated a bit. I'm trying to show my committment to my job in hopes of getting ahead, but Carl's job is above and beyond unflexible....oh well.

Carl and I are joining a football team this spring with the BIL and Mindy and I'm pretty excited. The first practice is next Saturday. I think the girls will enjoy being outside for a bit too....

I'm pretty psyched for the wine and cheese party at Cirucci's tomorrow night...

ahh the weekend...and then today

So Carl is still recovering from Friday, but everything went well, so that's good. I spent the weekend taking care of him...and the girls, which proved to be a bit stressful at times.
Friday's meeting/learning session was somewhat disappointing; PSA, just because I look young doesn't mean that we have to discredit my ideas!
Saturday, I brought the girls along to my presentation to the student ambassadors..they were so good!
This morning, I walked in to a lovely, clean office! What a stress reducer :) I should be sure that my office is organized like this every evening before I leave!

instead of doing work

So I've decided that myspace is pretty much my demise, not because it helps me to procrastinate (because it definitely does that), but because it constantly reminds me of things from the past, good things. I think it was in my lost blog where I talked about my three soulmates that I met while in college. Myspace has made me sort of sappy tonight (thanks Ciruc mostly to something I found on your page) and this is basically a salute to our memories!

Freshman year, my ode to Stine Hall, second smallest room on campus! My first month at Gettysburg College I met my bestests, Wen and Ciruc. Cirucci pretty much decided that she didn't like me the first time we met, and I was convinced that Wen was after a guy I had a crush on (Carll with a double "l"). Wen and I slowly became friends and one fateful night in October, Cirucci was my instant BFF. And just a few memories for the girls, the beginning of the triple kiss and the three musketeers, "we're here to see the wholle fn show", "so you're the orientation leader", parties and sleepovers at crow, comb-over, matching tube tops, the thong song, "i'm touching all the worms", raspberry vinagerette dressing, erik with a double "p", purple bead girl, smooching in the third floor seminar room, bid-night at crow, beruit for ciruc b/c adam was her TA, badminton champs, pictures at Walmart, rush and pledging, climbing in bed on saturday and sunday mornings, AXP booty calls, ciruc and the "no, no, no, no" dance with seth, that "boom boom boom boom" song from SAE, midnight madness, servo brunch, spring fest at crow, Jon Derby, Ryan, Josh, Andy, Willem, Seth, James, Wen's ATO boy...looking back, this year was sooo full of fun, I remember crying on the day that I moved out

Sophmore year, started just like freshmen year ended...with lots of partying. Cirucci, I will never forget, as long as I live, our very first night back to campus. Just you and me in our room with the giant closet and big bottle of Coconut Rum. We drank like we were in the cutting edge and danced around the room to songs that we had accumlated on winamp (back when it was still free). Good thing we're both christian ;) This was the year that Wen went to her first concert, we had a list of what was wrong with our exs on the wall, we walked in on Ciruc doing "nothing", the Ravens won the superbowl, we were the pink ladies, I got RA, sledding at Cirucci's and the map of her driveway, screwdrivers before the bio final, walking to sevs with the thong on my head, waking up too drunk to go to kegs and eggs, snow at the leadership retreat, orange shirt boy, he kisses like a horse, Cirucci shaved my legs, Crickie took me to the ADPi date party and you guys had to pick me up with Wens car, I ripped the ear off of the blue mouse, carls dancing at the theta chi date parties, the princess stuff, Wen locking herself out of her room, spring fest at theta chi, Weida in the kiddy pool, Big Al and Scotty booty calls, Josh, Carl, Andy, and our first big fight, spring break in FL....

Junior year was a big one, I came back to the 'burg engaged, and Wen and Andy were pretty serious and Cirucci and I made up. Things were different because Cirucci didn't live with us anymore :( Enter Danielle, Ambika, and Katie. Wen, for some reason, the most vivid memory I have from this year is you and I running from ATO after WWIII to theta chi to get some (but neither of us did) I think we all grew up a lot this year...

Senior year, I was in WDW for the first semester. The three of us were swamped with work (6 classes, student teaching, and science experiments). Senior revs and the senior formal were awesome. Cirucci, one of the best nights right before I got married was the one that I spent with you on homecoming weekend. We visited all of our old "haunts" and I had the best time. Wen, I woke up next to you the morning of my wedding, what else can I say. Sometimes I wish we could turn back time and do it all over again. I would do one thing differently, never let Cirucci go! We need to have a night soon when we play all of the old songs, drink the old drinks (maybe even throw a little coconut rum into the mix) and have a true dance party. We need to wear matching Walmart tank tops and tight black pants just for the effect and eat papa johns pizza. I'm not sure what I would do without you girls in my life, you truly keep me sane and I will always love you!!!

Twins

I know that I've mentioned the chat boards before, but I'm really getting annoyed with them, again. Recently, the site that I chat on has added a multiples board. I feel like twin moms are obsessed with separating themselves from moms of singletons. Really, what is the difference between having twins and having two kids of different ages? Personally, I think that having a toddler and an infant would be harder. I feel lucky to have twins because I love my daughters, not because I think being a twin mom makes me better than moms of singletons. I see no need for special books, special groups, etc. I have two individual daughters. They don't dress alike, they don't act alike, they are normal sisters that happen to share a birthday. I never refer to my girls as "twins" when speaking about them, and my friends know better than to refer to them as "the twins" either. As of today, I think that I'm no longer going to chat with these women. Yesterday, I was the only one (out of over 20 women) who saw it important to dress the children differently. Some mentioned that its easier to dress them alike because it makes the laundry easier...I'm not sure how. I have dressed the girls alike once. I don't think that dressing them differently affects my laundry. They each have their own clothes, just like my husband and I have our own clothes. Some women just peeve me!!!

ok end of rant, back to work!

hair

In November, just before my birthday, I went through a small sort of identity crisis. I was tired of people mistaking me for a college student, nanny, etc. and went looking for a more "mature" look. I made the decision to cut my hair. I am not a fan of short hair. It worked for a bit, but it requires far too much time to maintain. I am going to start growing it out again, but for right now, I think it is hideous. It has this short part in the front, that tends to make me look like I have a mullet (Carl always disagrees). Its too short to put in a ponytail, so I'm stuck with this dinky half pony tail thing; a look that I rocked in the early 90s.

Lately I have realized that it doesn't matter how young people think I look. If I don't feel comfortable with my look, I won't be as confident. I loved having hair that I could pull back if I wanted, but looked great down, even if I didn't finish blow drying it, curl it, etc.

This morning, watching Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts on GMA, I thought about my two best friends (I know, seems so strange how my mind wanders). I am very lucky to have such beautiful and smart friends, and recently I have been "taking notes" from them. I know that they each feel as though they have weaknesses, but from the outside, you would never know. Wen is quietly confident and driven. Cirucci is beautiful, determined and very smart. They both always give the appearance of having everything together, something that I am working on. It is always so interesting to me how women who are so close, have taken such different life paths. Wen took went right to grad school from the burg, Cirucci worked and earned her masters, and I took the family and career route, just now getting into my masters. We each bring such different things to the table, and that's so cool.

I guess that is what makes Carl and I work as well. I am the high strung, over planner and Carl is the calm, confident that everything will come together in the end one. Certainly we've had strains, especially recently, as his long hours have become more of a burden. Something always helps us to work through it. Perhaps its Carls patience with my worrying and loud personality. Perhaps its our mutual faith that we do truly love one another and what we have built for ourselves. I adore my husband and he helps me to feel confident in all that I do. Its weird how opposites do seem to attract, both in romatic relationships and friendships.....

Lots going on...

Wow! There is lots going on these days....

Congrats to Cliff and Erin on their new baby boy!!!

The access code situation seems to be just the beginning of the headaches with that particular class, or should I say professor. The professor never emailed me the email he sent to an inactive account which had our first assignment on it. Luckily I checked blackboard and saw the assignment was due. However, the actual assignment was sent as a link to his first email. I emailed him to get the assignment, but of course he never emailed back, so I spent the morning emailing classmates I've never met. Yay! for classmate Heather who wrote back and helped me out. It all came together at the very last minute (15 minutes before it was due).

I have leadership class on Friday. I'm kind of looking forward to it, especially since it is including yummy breakfast (hopefully). Spring travel is rapidly approaching and the applications are piling up on my desk to be read , so life is rather busy professionally. Carl will be out of commission this weekend due to a minor "procedure", so the girlies will be accompanying me to a brief presentation I have to give...we'll see how that goes ;)

I'm getting excited for Brian to start at Towson. It will be fun to have him around the office. Plus, I'm sure that I'll get to see Cirucci more now, so that is plus number 2!