Happy IKEA Career Conference Birthday

So today is my birthday. I wanted to go to the gym, but little bit is sick, so I can't. I wanted to get out of the house, having been captive here yesterday (hubby took my keys by accident). So, where do I go? IKEA!

I thought... this is perfect. I can have lunch with the kids at the cafe, then drop the Iz at the play area, and take sick little bit with me to shop for another shoe rack. Right? Everyone gets out of the house and has fun, right???

Well, that's before I went overboard. I should have known better. I got Iz a new easel with one side blackboard and one side whiteboard, plus markers and chalk to go with it. I also got a new toy organization system for her closet, and a shoe rack. And a chair.

Lord help me, I can't control myself at IKEA.

Like Running for the Flint

Ugh.

Screwdriver thrown in the engine. I am powerless against it.

God's delay is not God's denial. It's only a delay. It's only a delay. It's only a delay. It's only a delay.

Ugh.

Junk

There are some days that I love driving my Jeep. And I thank God for those small blessings.

Today we looked at tile, because we're finally getting our bathroom done this week (yay!). We picked out two we really like. One is a beige-brown marble, the other is a red-brown marble. Put the two together, and can you say "elegant"? I can picture the bathroom with sunflowers in an antiqued vase, sepia pictures of foreign lands, and antiqued silver fixtures. So pretty! When it's done I'll upload pictures (although it won't be DONE DONE for a while, after this we'll still have to peel wallpaper and paint the walls and cabinets, plus replace the countertop). I'm going to look for small red and brown stones to do the base of the shower. I'm so friggin' excited I'm about to jump out of my skin. And is it weird that I'm getting this excited over a bathroom? I hope not, because I can't afford a psychiatrist right now. The best I can do is calling my sis, who has her Bachelor's in Psychology. I hope she doesn't charge much.

I helped a friend with a garage sale today. I ended up taking home 2 boxes of food, four new pairs of shoes, one Barbie with clothes and one without, and a pillowcase full of ribbon. All for free, thanks Steph! I don't know how this happens to me. I can walk through a garage sale and not buy anything, but if I'm helping someone run one it's like I lose all my marbles. I see stuff and think, "I don't need that." But give me two hours, and I swear I'll die without it. I have evil thoughts about fighting the next-door neighbor over the Barbie playhouse as she purchases it. I saw a Ken shirt that looked like it went to a prince outfit and thought, "Now if I can just wrestle that playhouse away from the stinky neighbor, I can sew a pair of pants to go with that shirt, buy a Ken doll, and then my princess can play princess!!!"

Of course, reality hits later, when I've had the Ken shirt for over a year and still haven't bought a Ken doll. I've probably bought the little material it would take to cover Ken's Liquid Papered butt (*snicker - Keri, remember?*), but I don't have a sewing machine, and I don't have the patience to sew it by hand because I use it all on the kids and my husband.

That's why I took six months to fix the "sewing pile." I felt so silly when it took me a grand total of 20 minutes to fix the minor damage on the six items in the sewing pile.

What I really need to do is schedule a garage sale of my own. Then I can get rid of all the crap in this house, which has piled up once again, probably because I've helped too many friends with too many garage sales. And I can take the money and use it to buy the paint and the cabinet knobs and the sunflowers for my new bathroom.

And thus the plan is set.


*Maniacal laugh*

Words of Wisdom

From our car trip:

Absolute blasphemy causes dog ear fidgets. Golf hobbyists infest juries, knowingly leading marsupials northward over patchy Quebec. Returning soup tastes unfortunate.

Almost bragging, Chad decided enough frenzied groupers had ingested jellybeans.

Artifacts buried carelessly decompose extremely fast.

Harmonious imbeciles joust kings loudly. Many nobles ogle princesses. Queens reluctantly summon truants' ugly vengeful wives. Xanadu yesterday zapped Angelo because calamari doesn't escape frisky gorillas.








Eh, figure it out for yourselves. :)

Impromptu

Pay Bonus.
Pay raise.
Cheesecake Factory.
Phantom of the Opera.
Light at the end of the tunnel.
Adam's Peanut Butter Cheesecake.
On-call gets to work from home.
Reorders.
New orders.







Happiness...

I get the overwhelming sense that I'm not taking care of things the way I should. Is it a psychological disease to think that you're constantly not doing good enough, or is it just society making me feel like I have to be perfect? Maintain the perfect house, have perfect children, have the perfect body, the perfect business, the perfect marriage. I have none of the above.

My poor floor hasn't seen a mop in three weeks. Frankly, it even disgusts me, and after three dogs and two children it takes more than you probably think to accomplish that. I'm glad my kids are past the eating-off-the-floor stage. Gotta take care of that this weekend. The house is constantly torn apart over and over again. Really, though, if you can get past the construction zones it's not half bad.

My children are great and I love them, but they sure do test my limits. Constant fighting. Throwing fits. Disobedience. They get into everything. I mean EVERYTHING. Accidents on the part of my 4-year-old and a complete unwillingness to potty train at all in my 2-year-old. I hope these qualities will one day turn into passionate curiosity that will lead to the cure of cancer.

My body... errr... nope. Not gonna go there.

My business is great, I just don't have time to work it the way I should, and when I do have time I'm so darned tired from everything else. But I make myself do it anyway, and I DO enjoy it. But I know why I'm not where I want to be and all the fingers point back to me. No excuses, right? I know.

My marriage? Let's just say the other half is in the other room playing WoW, and we've got our problems. I'm trying to work on them, but sometimes I get so aggravated I just want to scream and yell, which isn't really my personality at all.

So there you have it. Jen is human after all. I know you've been wondering. And I don't really have a right to complain. So many others have it so much worse than me. I just feel such... pressure. To be the best I can be, to go above and beyond in everything I do, and it's simply not possible to achieve everything. I'd need another five lifetimes for that.

I'm going to keep on truckin', though. Come hell or high water I will keep going. Because, you see, that's just what I DO... I'm a steady plodder. The Energizer Bunny. I just keep going.

And maybe, one day, if I just keep going long enough, my life will resemble a little bit of perfection.

And maybe I just watch too many movies...