A Sign

This past Saturday our family had a wonderful outing to of all places, IKEA. We do love IKEA but boy were we exhausted afterwards. On our way out Ivan and I had the following random sarcastic conversation:

I: Maybe I could design caskets for IKEA.
J: Huh?
I: You know, a put it together yourself cheapo version but still make it look cool.
J: Now there's an idea. You could make some novel ones you know like they do now a days where they make caskets in the shape of guitars and pianos and such to reflect how the person was while living.
I: Hmm....maybe I should sketch some and stick it in my portfolio.
J: That's sounds kind of morbid.


I know, weird conversation. Why on earth would we be talking about this? I have no idea.

Then yesterday Ivan got one of those emails from Monster where they send you job openings in your field. This was the job the came up:

Product Designer

Looking for a challenging opportunity with a successful corporation where your dedication and results will be noticed? Batesville Casket Company offers a team environment where we recognize and promote dedicated and results oriented employees.

Batesville Casket Company is more than the world’s leading producer of premium caskets and cremation products, we set the standard for success and productivity. We play a vital role in the funeral process, assisting funeral directors in helping families honor the lives of someone they loved.

Several of our manufacturing facilities have recently been recognized by both the National Safety Council and Industry Week for their best practices and efficiency as well as their commitment to excellence. Join a winning team and receive the spoils of success such as competitive pay and benefits.

We are currently looking for a Product Designer at our Batesville, IN location.

So how random is that? Is it a sign? I don't think that we want it to be a sign because really, who wants to design caskets and urns. Not exactly a dream job. I guess it has one advantage though, I'm sure business is always steady no matter what state the economy is in. At any rate we are going to apply. It couldn't hurt and besides it's right outside of Cincinnati which we love so it couldn't be all bad right?

Being creative

Here is a little something I made for a friend last night. I thought it was actually blog worthy. Hopefully this qualifies me as good enough to do the Stampin' Up! thing.

Free stuff

I love getting stuff for free. Who doesn't? Take today for instance. We splurged a little and met daddy for a lunch date. We have not done that in forever. I guess we were feeling pretty rich since it was pay day so we went to Chili's (Lili's idea). And I have to admit that nothing makes me happier than having a good meal with out me having to do a thing but just sit there and be served. However our food took much longer than we imagined. A lot longer. Our server never even came to check on us and we had run out of water to drink. I was getting a little antsy. I didn't even see her anywhere to flag her down. I was getting annoyed. FINALLY she came to the table to give us water. I asked about our food and told her we had been waiting a long time. After all, Ivan only has an hour lunch. So we finally got our food brought out to us by the manger who apologized profusely. Now the good part. We got the girls' food free and then he gave us an envelope with some gift certificates that would cover nearly a whole meal for all of us. Score! I love it when that happens. Of course we had to be extremely annoyed (and had to pay for our food) in order to get our free stuff but I'd have to say it was worth it.

I had another free stuff thing happen this week. My sister in Cali called me on Tuesday and asked me if I had any secret desire to own a Bosch. Uh....YEAH! I've been wanting one for years but figured it would have to wait until we were settled into a real job. Hallelujah! Just so happens her neighbor was giving away her Bosch. She said she had prayed about who to give it to and she just kept thinking of my sister. Funny, because my sister already owns a Bosch. My sister was very gracious and asked if it was alright to give it to her sister. I feel so lucky. But that's not even the best part. It also just so happens that a good family friend who lives in Salt Lake is heading down to CA for the weekend and will bring me back my Bosch. Funny how things work out sometimes. Now I just need a wheat grinder and I can be the true granola that I know is inside of me!

To stamp or not to stamp

Lately I've been quite into doing crafty things. In particular making cards and other cute paper things. I love it. It helps me be creative and it's a good distraction from all the poopy things going on in my life. Last night my wonderful friend Laurie had a Stampin' Up party. I was so excited to go because I love their stuff and I was determined to actually buy something. (Last week I sold something on Craigslist just so I''d have money for it). I wound up spending nearly twice as much as I had planned but that's because they were having a deal where if you spend $50 you get a free stamp set and of course, I love free stuff so....I just had to do it. Besides, it is all stuff I "need".

Then I got to thinking, what if I become a demonstrator? Would I get a good discount? Could I earn enough money to support my habit? Would it be fun? The thought has actually crossed my mind before but I've thought that there is no way that I'm talented enough to do it. So I am in a dilemma folks. What do I do? I want to do it. I want to do it for the social aspect of meeting new people and hanging out with gal pals doing girly stuff. I want to do it for all the stuff I could buy to make cute things. It's a little bit of an investment though. Ahh....what do I do? My husband actually supports me in my endeavor but do I feel confident enough to go through with it? "Sigh". I will mull over it for a little while and get back to you with my decision. Feel free to weigh in with your opinion.

My cry for help!

(Again, read at your own risk! BTW, this is not meant to offend anyone who may be taking Prozac or any other type of anti depressant. It's just me being....a bit sarcastic.)

I've decided that I need to start taking Prozac. I just can't seem to figure any other way to get out of this funk that I'm in. I mean really, I've gone a little loony I think. Does crying yourself to sleep every night fall under the category of being depressed? What about bursting into tears every time I see a Florida or Texas license plate? (Which it seems happens every time I go out. Why are so many Texans living in Provo?) And never mind the fact that I have the desire to sit in front of the TV every night with a carton of ice cream to drown my sorrows in. Not that I eat a carton of ice cream every night...I just have the desire to. So yes folks..I do believe I can be considered depressed or at least a little off my rocker.

Those of you who know me know that I'm kind of anti doctor and anti meds so I'm looking for some suggestions on how to get out of this stupor. Please no "eat healthy and exercise" crap, I already know that. What I'm looking for are .....ideas for things to do to distract me at least. So anyone got any brilliant ideas? Please please please tell me. I'm crying out for help here people! And if I don't get any I may just wind up being committed.

Why?

(Note to all readers: This post is meant for therapeutic reasons only on the part of the author. If you choose to read this post you may be subjecting yourself to negativity and cynicism. Read at your own risk.)

Why? That is a question I have been asking myself a lot lately. Why aren't we moving to Florida? Why not Texas either? Why on earth did we just spend the last 3 and a half years sacrificing our time and money (that we didn't have) to finish school when we are in the same place we were 3 years ago? Why does everyone else get a job right after graduating and we are still stuck here? Why did we get ourselves into a ton of student loan debt going through school only to be making the same we would've been making had we stayed at our job that we had before going to school? Why do we have to still be poor? Why do some people get flat screen TV's and Wii's for Christmas and we have to take back all of our presents in order to pay our electricity bill etc...? Why doesn't GM have a contract job for us? Why have we not seen the fruit of our labors? Why are we stuck in such a state of non progression? WHY have I been sentenced to life in Utah? (sorry to all my Utah friends, that's not to offend you, I just would rather live somewhere else.)

Why? Why? Why? I have not come up with the answer to any of these questions as of yet. I am hoping that soon I will receive some answers so that I can get some sleep and stop feeling so depressed over all of this.

Other things that are happening in my world: Sofi is driving us all nuts. I now believe there really is a thing called the terrible 2's. I deal with her temper tantrums all day everyday. I'm about to pull my hair out. God help me!

Also, we got a cat. We rescued her from the shelter. We love her, she is the best cat ever. She's quiet and well mannered and tolerates the kids. I was going to post about her and put a picture but I can't find the cord to upload my pictures to the computer. Argg!

I hope this post wasn't too much of a downer. I guess I need all of my friends to know just what I'm going through right now. I promise to try and post something better next time.

Resolution # 3

I thought that maybe I might give up blogging. It seems lately that I can't come up with anything to blog about nor does it seem that I have to the time to blog either. However after reevaluating the situation and seeing as I have quite the international audience, I have decided instead to make it a goal to blog at least twice a week this year. We'll see how I do. It may work for a couple of weeks and then wind up in the pooper like all of my resolutions seem to do but at least I will have given it a go.

While we are on the subject of resolutions, another one of mine this year is to be more frugal. By choice not by necessity. I have had to be frugal for the past several years with Ivan in school and me being at home with my babies. It has not always been fun but out of necessity I have been able to come up with a couple of good meals that have now become staples in our family. Making things that everyone will like, OK, that Lili and Sofi will like, is quite the chore sometimes. The other day I stewed most of the day over what I would make for dinner. Mostly because I did not want to go to the store or spend money on food until absolutely necessary. I took inventory of what I had on hand and came up with a great idea. The result was a a great little mexican chicken thing to put in tortillas. I thought it was yummy........my girls did not. Well, actually, they were repulsed by the sight of it. Wouldn't even try it.

Our dinner went something like this: Sofi: "boo hoo hoo. Wa Wa Wa!"
Daddy: "Lili, eat your food. It's really yummy."
Lili: "NO!! I DON'T WANT TO!"
Mommy: "Sniff Sniff." (feeling depressed because no one liked what she worked so hard to make)
This basically went on for 20 minutes or so. We had quite the Super Nanny moment. I was mad and feeling like a failure as a mom. After all, I was doing my best to make something yummy and healthy with what we had and not spend money that we don't.

After the girls were in bed that night I came downstairs and turned on the TV to veg and forget about my sorrows. So what show happens to be having it's season premier? None other than Super Nanny! It took about 10 minutes for me to snap out of my doldrums and realize that I am not the worst mom in the world. No sir, there are plenty that are worse off than I am. I suppose I am doing OK if an occasional unwelcome meal is the worst thing that happens. Needless to say though, the next day I made sure to get a few things at the store and we had a very well received spaghetti dinner last night. So for now I will put my "black bean and chicken mexicana" recipe in the archives and maybe pull it back out when my children are old enough to appreciate such fine cuisine.