There is light…..I can see it

It’s been a drabby and long, wet, winter. Today the sun has graced us with its presence here in small town. I celebrated by sleeping in (gross – but I worked a 19 hour shift the day before) and took the pups to the dog park. I walked by my chicken coop that I am itching to fill with life (as in chickens) and took mental note of the work I will do on it this Monday.

Chickens are on order for April – can’t wait! But in the meantime I will be occupying myself with getting the garden going and learning more about that. In addition to keeping up with my goals.

The light I am referring to is not only the sunshine: I am talking about breaking through the long and arduous wall that has been keeping me from getting financially stable since this move in November. Moving is hard and a huge financial burden, let alone moving to an island and establishing a job and working all that out. I am days away from being able to let out a huge sigh of relief and hopefully sleep restfully (after celebrating). The thing about money and the stress that accompanies it, is that it is hard to get it out of your mind, especially if you are falling behind. It can be terrifying: how will I make it until ____ date? how will I pay off ____ bill? what about gas for my car? There is always something that comes up it seems.

When we moved, I was in school full-time (correspondence) and had a loan, a small savings and the attitude that I can get a job anywhere. Which is true (to an extent) but what I did not take into account is the possibility that it could take a while to get going. I am grateful and realize how lucky I am, but MAN it’s been a hard few months. So my strategy to get through this all was to keep the best attitude about it as I could. Inevitably it got to me and there were times where I would stress and stress until I made myself sick. What a mess.

But I did keep telling myself that “it has to get better, and it will.”

It did. And I am quite certain it will continue to get better. So the sunshine today has really assisted in not only boosting my vitamin D intake, but also my proverbial spirits. The sun is shining and the weather is sweet my friends. Take some time to appreciate what you have, what you’ve worked for and share it with someone special.

Much love,

-SM

A’s all over the place!

Yep, you read it right…final marks include A’s across the board. Yeeeehaww!

Other than geeking out on my marks, not too much to report as of late. I have had miserable weather for my paper route (like huge emphasis on MISERABLE), there has been sideways rain, sleet, wind and more rain. Luckily I have my trusty rain hat that I swear by. I realize it’s not a fashion statement by any means but when it comes to weather like this I am one happy camper beneath my rain hat. I have had many jobs outside such as construction, landscaping, my route, I like to camp, hike and be outside. Without this hat I would not be nearly as willing to participate in the above activities. So how awesome is my hat? See for yourself…….

 I’ve had a couple of exciting practices this week at roller derby too. I am getting ready to try to do my minimum skills test in a week and last night I got a little over zealous. You see, I tend to fall a bit (when I say a bit, I mean more like quite a lot), but I chalk it up to that I am trying hard. Last night I had a really really good fall that resulted in a trip to the emergency for x-rays. I landed pretty hard on one side and thought I had done something serious to my elbow, but luckily I got off easy with no breaks and an Rx to ice the crap out of it for a few days. Phewf! I also managed to do a doozy on my lower butt cheek that made driving home one handed and nearly one butt-cheeked very interesting. What was awesome was that some of my derby sisters drove me to the ER and waited and cheered me on as I went through the embarrassing process of explaining myself to the doctor. They were planning on where I would stay or who would get me home (since I live out-of-town) which was so awesome because I felt very taken care of. I guess this is what they mean by “derby love“, cause I felt it! Thanks team!!! XOXO

**Warning, I’ve added a risqué pic of my booty here to show my war wound** 

You’ll notice that the part circled in red is enlarged….The picture doesn’t do it justice though, when I looked down at it last night it was as if a can of coke was growing underneath my skin – it was large. Ice is my best friend today and I think I’ll have the swelling under control in time for Sundays’ practice!

So the rest of my day includes playing video games, reading, knitting (if my elbow agrees with that) and thinking up ways to change the world! Muh hahahahahahahaha.

Oh ya! One more thing…I found out yesterday from my sisterfriend (what John’s sis and I refer to each other by) when the baby’s eviction notice is – February 3rd which is NEXT FRIDAY! So I will be heading stateside next week for the excitement! WOOO YAA!

Keep it real out there

-SM

Survival of the Fittest

I’ve been putting off another official post for a bit. Not because I didn’t want to write, but I’ve had a big push to finish my courses, write exams, start the new job and even though I had yesterday off and completely free of any responsibilities, I wanted to take the time to just mellow out….and play in the snow!!! We got a huge dumping of snow here in new small town, and it was the most exciting thing to wake up to yesterday morning. One of my dogs LOVES it, the other one…not so much. So we played in the snow, and later I went out and practiced driving in the snow in an attempt to overcome a recent traumatic snow-driving experience. I did just fine and in fact, I survived 🙂

So, what’s been happening? Well, last weekend I wrote my final exam for one of my courses. I literally made myself physically sick trying to study and prepare myself. I do not usually do well on tests, but to my delighted surprise when I arrived to write it, I actually felt like I knew what I was talking about. Many people around me were like “I told you so, I knew you’d be fine” and similar comments. But seriously, I did not expect to feel confident afterwards, I have always struggled with memorization and exams. I think I did well though. Will let ya know when I get the results.

I also presented my final presentation for another course the other night – again completely terrified I had done a half-assed job, but again I had a virtual standing ovation (It’s an online course). So I’ve actually managed to pull it off for school. This is an accomplishment for me, since I have actually finished something – I have a tendency to start up projects or intend to accomplish something and then it fizzles out. It looks like I’m actually going to run the whole distance here and I’ve managed to do it while holding down a job (a sometimes very demanding one) and a relationship. Go me! I survived.

New job report: I love it! I’ve had a handful of training days and will be heading out shortly to it. It feels natural to me and the new coworkers/boss seem to really like me. Phewf! Survived training while exams were going on. Success!

I’ve been missing derby practices for a week 😦 BUT the good news is (weather permitting since I drive through a mountain pass) I have practice tonight and can’t wait! Cross your fingers for me about the weather!

More good news for me is John and I are going to be auntie and uncle VERY soon!!! John’s sis is going to have her baby in the next coupla weeks which means we get to go down to the Seattle area to welcome into the world our niece to be – exciting!!! This will be John’s first time ( I have a niece and nephew on my side) of experiencing the amazingness and it’s really sweet how excited he is. I can’t wait to get down there 🙂

Have a great day – keep warm if you’re getting pummeled by the winter weather and I’ve added a few snowy pics of my poochies on the property yesterday.

-SM

Things are looking up kid – GOALS

It’s been an intense week…make that couple of months.

Uprooting your life and moving to a new place is awesome and scary. I knew it would be hard, so I made myself some personal goals to achieve that were directly related to the move alone (since I have other goals that are just general “get these done goals”).

So far I am on par for meeting the goals:

• get to know the area without needing a gps
• get a job
• make some friends
• stay on top of housework (in progress)
• chill the f*ck out (in progress)

The biggest challenge has been finances which we all experience at some point. Moving is expensive, being a full-time student is expensive and the in between jobs time is nice but it quickly chews through your savings. I have been trying to keep my chin up but $ is one of those things that can get the best of you. So, I buy lottery tickets once in a while with my lost-in-the-backseat-of-my-truck-money. I like to dream about the things I’ll do with my lottery winnings. So far, my career in the lottery ticket world has been pretty weak. However, a couple of weeks ago, I picked up a ticket and tucked it away in my wallet and completely forgot about it. Last week while doing some grocery shopping I noticed the lottery booth and was reminded to check my ticket. It was my personal best for lottery winnings: $20 AND a free play for tomorrow’s $50 million jackpot. Things are looking up indeed……

Tuesday was paper day but it was also my first training day at my new job. I had a 4 hour gap in between shifts to rush home and do my route – which I was dreading since I woke up long before the sun came up. Boy was I ever glad I did my route because there were Christmas cards galore left out for me at 12 of my houses. It wasn’t so much the tips that made my day, but that people had made the effort to call the newspaper to ask my name and personalized my cards. I felt like such a sappy chick, but I was almost moved to tears. I must be getting old or something…. I made $20 in tips which was a definite bonus. Tomorrow is another paper day, so who knows, things may continue to look up!

The icing on my cake this week, was getting a call back for a second interview for the job I really want. Really really want. I went for it yesterday and I don’t want to jinx it, but I have a really good feeling about this one. If I get this one, it will be my numero uno job and I will stop complaining about how hard life can be, because I will have achieved one of my ultimate goals and be so grateful.

I’m a firm believer that things can be really hard for a while, but eventually things move up and get better. This is what I feel is happening, so although I am exhausted and stressed, I see the good on its way.

It’s time to get back to school because I have a really cool prof that assigned a project due December 25th – way to go. Plus my parents arrive later today for a few days so I will likely be nonresponsive for a while. Good luck with holidays everyone, I know I’ll need it.

XO

-SM