New Years Evolutions

This year I will not make any resolutions. I have decided on evolutions. How to become a better me... The cavemen did it so can I.
Evolution number one: Put myself first.
Evolution number two: Rocks, Paper, Scissors
Paper, live it, love it, and embrace it!
Live it in that I pass paper out, collect paper, and correct papers.
Love it, I love paper, the feel of it, any kind of paper. I make things out of paper, I adore the new smell of paper and could not live without my books that are filled with paper.
Embrace it, Learn that paper is a dying industry and it may require changes in location again at some point, help others to embrace recycling, and realize that a book made of paper is so much more fun to read than an electronically down loaded book. You need to feel the words on the paper.
Scissors, my crafts all require scissors. I hope to evolve into a person that does not cut herself with her scissors all the time. Focus on the project in hand not five minutes ahead all of the time.
Rocks, I love rocks almost as much as paper.I love the stability of them, the depth that they hold and the strength of rocks. I want to have stability, depth and strength this upcoming year.
Evolution number three: Water and Food
Water, Water, Water!
Food, only put in what makes my body better.
Evolution number four: Each day, do something for myself, my family and one innocent stranger.
Here's to my 2010 Evolution

cleaning day

I am a very organized person. It haunts me as some points. I am very anal at work and have to have a plan in order for the day to start. As I have gotten older, my organizational skills are often made fun of by my co-workers. It is hurtful to me at times, the comments of "I should have guessed you would be ahead of the rest of us at to lesson planning, report cards, etc."
I really do not try to keep this life of mine under my finger tips but my brain does it automatically. To the point that others that are "messy" or very disorganized cause me great stress. I am not in charge of them but I tend to try to wrap my head around how they can get by from day to day. We have to be two completely different species, I fear.
I have been "ranging up" since I was one year old and took all the cans out of my grandmothers cupboard and put them back in in an order that worked for me. Today I cleaned out my pantry and put all the canned veggies in order by alphabet and type. You have to have beans, carrots, corn and then green beans.
I use numbers to order my class. If a child leaves then that number is vacant until another student comes to fill it.
I organize my closet by color or by type of item, collared shirts, cardigan sweaters, work out clothes etc.
The difficulty that I have is that I have a very artistic side as well. I long to be able to go to work with my hair having just woke up, a shirt and skirt that do not match yet look so eclectic that the flow of the hair and outfit work. I often tell people that I feel like half my body wants organization and the other half wants chaos.
Today the organized side won out and my closet, extra room, craft closet, pantry and garage are all in order.
I have thank yous to make and write so tomorrow I may let the creative side take over and not even clean up the mess...... Ya right, the laundry is in organized color piles, my color pallet for the day.

Anniversary

So twenty four years has gone by in the blink of an eye. I am still very in love with this wonderful man. We have had many fun experiences in our married life and we got to have one more last night for our anniversary. We were able to get tickets to the Suns Lakers game. I had been to a pro basketball game once before with all the family but we were in the nose bleed section of the alamo dome and it was not too exciting. Last night we were in row 14 from the floor and the U.S. Airways Center is built just for basketball. So loud and noisy and yet you felt like you were in the front row. The players are huge no doubt about it. I was so amazed at the size of Phil Jackson as well. The real interesting thing to me was how Kobe Bryant did not seem to be that dominating, yet he had 34 points. The real fun was looking at the crowd. Weird and Weirder is the only word. I did manage to spot John McCain just down from us and his wife Cindy. Very pretty lady. Fun evening and a nice day in the Valley with warm weather. Home now to snow and a hot fire. Robyn doing her second puzzle of the season and a dog that missed me very much. LIFE IS GOOD!

Birthdays

So birthdays have always been a big deal to me. I love letting everyone know it is my birthday no matter how old I get. But the other members of my family have a different way of looking at their birthdays. Jeff announces every month on the 27th how many months it is til his next birthday. Robyn can tell you exactly how many days it is until her next birthday 147 to be exact. Allison starts her birthday palloosa about two weeks before her birthday but will tell everyone that asks that it is only nine months and two weeks til her next birthday.
Well let me be clear, My birthday is NEXT people!!! My birthday is on January 7th and that is exactly 11 days away. That is 264 hours away. I am the one with the next birthday and the rest of the family better remember this cause as soon as the 1oth, 23rd and 27th of the month come around all the rest of the family will make it clear that their birthdays are coming soon.

PAPER

As I sit here with my new notebook my thoughts are of all the wrapping paper in the garage that I need to take care of. Paper has been on my mind a lot lately. As the wife of a Human Resources Manager of a Paper company, paper has been a constant in our married life. Last week we learned that the last of the six mills Jeff has worked at will be permanently shut down on Dec. 31st.
This is a very strange feeling. Our lives have been these mills, the people that have worked there and the products that they have produced. Missoula, my hometown, where Jeff and I met and where my family still lives. Ontonagon, Michigan, where Allison was born, her godparents, and the most snow I have ever seen in my life, also my first real teaching job in a one room school house. Who plows the entire yard on the first snow?? Neenah, Wisconsin, where Robyn was born, our year of a rotten job that taught us what is really important in life, each other. Watertown, New York, school for Allison and more big snows. The Partridge Berry Inn and free birthday dinners. Got to love two birthdays in January.Lufkin, Texas the majority of our children's lives. Great friends, warm weather and soccer that we will always cherish. All of the mills have closed but the memories remain and the friends are still only a phone call away.
So this is my paper of today, a small notebook , but with the power to contact all of these friends in one easy click. Mills will close and life moves on but the power the PAPER has had created bonds that will never be broken.

Christmas Gifts

A new laptop and the birth of a blog. Today has been a great day.
I have been contemplating a blog for some time now. My family thinks that a blog is a way to vent in public. I think it is a way to journal in today's world. I am thrilled with this new laptop. I was so jealous of Jeff, Allison and Robyn and all the evenings comfy on the couch with their laptops and then there was me.... I am hoping that this will not only be my creative outlet but also a way to learn more about my new gift. I hope to be as creative and expressive as all the blogs that I have been reading. Here's to a new toy, a new lease on computers and the birth of a blog.