Join me in a good read

I used to be such a reader.  I'm gonna say that changed when Willa was born.  There just isn't as much time for sitting and reading.  Its getting a little bit better as she gets a little older, there are more times that she is content playing while I sit and read.  I had thought that working nights would provide me with ample reading time, which I guess technically it does, but if I start reading too early, I get even drowsier than I do if I find other ways to pass the time.  I am very excited about a book club that a friend recently formed and wanted to share it with any of my blog readers who love books!  We are "discussing" the books through a blog that Tiffany set up, so anyone anywhere can participate.  And, we are discussing one chapter per week so if you are slow like me, you can keep up.  And if you aren't slow, you can still be reading other things as well.  The first book we are reading is called The Hole in our Gospel and we are just now on chapter 1 so feel free to join in!

Aaaaand...there went nearly my entire night shift.

A million thank you's to the lovely and talented Nicole at Making It Lovely for sharing this link.  I only made it about a third of the way through the essays tonight, but I will read the rest.  And soon.  I adore election time.  And I have no problem with telling anyone who will listen that I am a left, left, leftie, liberal, hippie, vegetarian, gun-hating, social-contract loving, my-uterus-my-choice, wind energy worshiping, help-the-least-of-those-among-us, health-care/marriage/civil rights/equal pay-for-all, CRAZY PERSON.  Its just how my brain works.  I've tried to make my brain be at least a little bit more moderate, so as not to seem so crazy, but it just can't.  I try not to be too in your face about it out in the real world.  But this is my blog, darn it, so I can be as De-de-de-democratic as I want.  If you have even the slightest inclination, you should check out some of these essays.  Of the ones I read, a few were vulgar, mostly the ones written by comedians.  But most were very intelligent, well written, some very personal explanations as to why the individuals are voting for Barack Obama for a second term.  One of my favorites was #25, written by Colin Meloy of The Decemberists, on the changes that have been made under this presidency that have assisted his family in receiving the therapies needed for their autistic son.  He makes a great point here " regardless of your tax bracket, if you’re parenting a kid with special needs, you need help."  So very, very true.  
Another of my favorites was #34 by author Elizabeth Gilbert on the nature of Barack Obama's character.  Every word of her essay rang true with me.  Sure, there have been other political figures that I have felt confident in voting for.  For pete sake, I may start a Bill Clinton fan club some day.  But, President Obama is the first politician I have felt admiration for, as far as character goes.  His calm, poised demeanor is a breath of fresh air.  His commitment to all classes of people is admirable.  And for me, bottom line, there is a very strong gut feeling about our two candidates.  I have a Facebook friend who worded her feelings about Mitt Romney in a way that made me laugh, but also kind of sums up my feelings toward him..."You know how dogs seem to have a 6th sense about people, well I would bet money that if you put a dog on the presidential debate stage that Romney would be eaten alive..."  Now of course, I don't wish for Mitt to be eaten by anything, but I personally agree with the sentiment:)  May the best candidate win, and in the words of Andrew Sean Greer (essay #5) "Supreme court, supreme court, supreme court!" 

Dirty Girl (Mud Run)

I did a mud run with these 2 lovely ladies a few weeks ago.  A mud run is definitely something you can't do without a smile on your face.  Very much looking forward to doing others in the future!  And many thanks to Tiff for mixing me a few drinks afterward:)

School update

Now that we are more than a month into preschool, we can officially say that we love it!  If you or anyone you know is looking for a place to send their little ones, I would HIGHLY recommend Dimensions.  Worth every penny.  Everyone there is so nice and they have done a great job with Willa and she is learning more than I would have thought possible!  We had parent/teacher conferences the other day and I just couldn't stop smiling the whole time Mrs. Katt was talking about Willa!  Such a nice lady...(Mrs. Katt.  And Willa)  We are so proud of our little stink-bomb.  The 2 teachers, Mrs. Katt and Ms. Miller, often email/text us pictures of what Willa is up to during the day, so here are a few...

One thing that we have heard from Willa's teachers is how focused she is on her tasks.  For example, this dot picture which utilized a gajillion dot stickers.  And that she worked on for most of the day.

This is from a mini-field trip the kids took to the Sunken Gardens, just down the street from school.  The kids were matching paint strips with holes punched in them to the plants.  What a cool idea for learning all kinds of colors!

Then they drew pictures of the plants in their journals.

Watering one of the school gardens.

Tosha and I can be twins again

Just a few cute pictures from Tosha's 32nd birthday party, out in the big town of Panama.  We had 32 tons of fun.  And maybe each took about 32 jello shots.  And Brad and Jared stayed up about 32 hours too late playing Rock Band.  But what the heck, you only turn 32 once!!!

6 years. 6 years?!?

During my blog hiatus, Brad and I had our 6 year wedding anniversary!  Crazy...isn't it weird how things can seem so long ago, because the details have gotten a little fuzzy and also because it just seems like the way things have always been, but at the same time it can seem like time has just flown by?  That is how I feel about having been married for 6 years.  Sometimes Brad and I talk about what the heck we did with our days and evenings before we had Willa.  I'm sure all parents probably have that conversation.  How did we fill our time?  Did we have hobbies?  Did we talk to each other?  Did we sometimes just stare at the walls and drool?  That would have been us, imitating Luther of course:)
We celebrated our 6th anniversary similarly to how we celebrated our first, with a day-long trip to Omaha.  This time, we had our little friend with us.  We started off the day with some shopping.

New shoes!  And we got to ride the ferris wheel at scheel's!

Ommmmaha has a Lululemon now.  Go there.  Take lots of money.

After shopping, we headed to the Old Market.  And got thirsty at the same time.  What a coincidence:)  We decided to check out Blatt Beer and Table for a little happy hour drink.  Great spot to have a drink outdoors, if you are in the area.  The name of my drink just slipped my mind but it contained both whiskey and honey.  Top notch.

After drinks, we took Willa to the big slides at the Gene Leahy Mall area.  I think Brad and I had just as much fun on the slides as she did!  It was getting pretty dark at that point, so no good pictures of the big slides.  And of course, we had to round out our day at Blue.  Surprise!  Its our most favorite.  

It was a nice day away and a great anniversary.  I must again thank Brad for putting up with me.  Every day for many, many years.

Did getting a tattoo KILL Allison?

Yep, this is it.  The obligatory, apologetic, guilty post about how I haven't posted in sooooo long.  Brace yourself.  It might get whiny.  It might sound like a pity party.  I swear after this post, I will be back to my usual self who is at least 50% more chipper.  I will try to throw in a few pictures of Willa to keep you all reading, cuz I'm tricky like that.

I credit the end of my mid-life-crisis to this tiny friend

Life didn't stop after Willa started school and I got a tattoo, believe it or not!  And it didn't even get particularly more busy but somehow, I let my normal life schedule get the better of me.  Not really for any specific reason, I just took less time to take care of myself I guess.  Not eating quite as well, not working out enough, interspersed with some wacky night shifts at the hospital that I don't normally work and I just kinda lost it.  I had a few grumpy weekends, which extended into grumpy weeks and I nearly freaked out and quit my job at the hospital.  A few times.  Here is the lowdown on my job at Bryan LGH.  I have been a mental health technician on the youth mental health units for over 10 years now.  I LOVE the nature of my job.  There was a long stretch of years there where I would have just plain said "I LOVE my job!" but it has gotten to the point where some of the politics of the organization have made the actual job not as enjoyable.  I don't know enough about the behind-the-scenes of the issues to go into specifics but things have changed there.  I still love the kids.  And my co-workers. About 4 years ago, when my cleaning business started to grow into an actual thing, I changed my schedule slowly from being a full time day shift worker at the hospital, to working part-time, and doing most of my hours at night.  This allows me to have more days free for cleaning, and has allowed for using up a little bit less of my parent's weekday hours watching Willa.  Also, there is a shift differential that makes working nights a little bit more appealing.  I don't dislike working nights, but there is almost no interaction with the patients, which was my favorite part of the job.  And, it leaves me pretty tired sometimes.  Especially on the days when my schedule doesn't allow for me to head straight home and fall into bed.  And even on the days that I do, I think any night shift worker will agree that there is just something not quite as restful about sleeping during the daytime hours.  I must give major props to my family, as they are always super considerate of me when I am sleeping during the day.  Lots of times, Brad will take Willa out and about, just to make it extra quite for me.  Not that she is loud.  No, never:)

Anyhooters, I got a little bit extra tired and overwhelmed and a little bit frustrated with my job, so I almost quit.  Quite honestly, we would probably be ok income-wise without my tiny hospital paychecks, now that I am only part time.  The big kicker is, we get all of our insurance through the hospital, and it is stellar insurance.  Like, we don't ever pay for anything.  Like, when I had Willa I paid about what I would pay for a few new pairs of jeans. (Well, maybe a little bit more than that, but you get the picture.)  There are no insurance options for Brad at Star City.  And I checked into private insurance a little bit, and I just don't think our budget can handle it right now, at lease not if I want a maternity option.  So I had a mini-melt down.  A mini-mid-life-crisis.  I didn't do anything too crazy, like the folks in the movies do.  I didn't run off anywhere tropical with my personal trainer (I don't have one.  If I did, he would have been fired so I could afford insurance:)  I didn't buy a sports car or get a boob job.  (Would rather have a Prius and haven't worked up the nerve yet:)  Instead, I was crabby, whined a lot to Brad and anyone who would listen, and then tried to go to bed earlier.  And guess what?  Things are better now!  Don't get me wrong, I would still love to quit working at the hospital, but for now I think I can stick it out at least till I've had another baby on their rockin' insurance and maybe I've paid off a few more bills.  Build up my 401k.  Have I said before how much I despise some of this grown-up stuff we have to deal with?!?

And if I'm being completely honest, most of the rest of the credit goes to coffee.