I've moved! Visit me at: Sassy Uterus

Everybody's Free lyrics

Heard this song on the radio today as I drove around, looking for a parking space near work, dealing with this crazy storm in the Bay Area and the fact that I couldn't use the parking garage at work due to a building-wide power outage. I have probably heard it before....but it is perfect.

Baz Luhrmann Lyrics - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99....

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience…

I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….

You’re not as fat as you imagine. Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you

Sing

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own..

Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them. Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders. Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85. Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth. But trust me on the sunscreen…

New outlook, sorta

It's the pregnancy I'm sure, but I am turning into a domestic maven. Yesterday, 12/31, I decided that the best way to start the New Year was with a clean house. Like, completely clean. I knew to pace myself and started in the living room. Following Wabi-Sabi principles I kept only those things I consider beautiful and give me joy at looking at it. So the cleaning become a process of cleaning/clearing. Every corner. Every piece of furniture. Every flat surface. After three hours in the living room (I uncovered and simplified the structures on my computer desk as well in this time), I moved to the dining room.

At one point I could be found prying the keys out of Phil's keyboard and cleaning each key individually. For a moment in time I became worried that I was nesting and I am far too early in this pregnancy to have pre-labor nesting. But I think it is more likely the one cup of coffee I indulged in that a.m. that got my butt going.

After my bedroom, and the day going quickly into evening, I petered out. Phil worked on the kitchen today whereas the boys took care of the hallway bath yesterday.

It was like spring cleaning in one day. And then today I awoke (early, Phil snoring, my spine hurting, I just decided to get up) to a nice, calm, house that had decorative elements (for the most part) that flowed into one another to provide a sense of "haven."

I ventured into the land of web and decided I'd solve my computer issues today as well. And that I did. I will send that out in another post for those of us dealing with Dell Laptop video/screen issues.

But now that my 'puter isn't crashing every hour, I had time to surf. And this is the result: I like A Gracious Home. It is right up my alley right now. Raised Catholic I appreciate the Christian lean to her blog as well as her simple joy in the stuff that truly matters. Her outlook is clear and uplifting.

And based on one of her links, I eventually found this idea of 101 things in 1001 days. It is a goal-planning thing. I'm not posting my list because some of the stuff is of a personal nature that I don't wish to broadcast on the 'net but I will give everyone the link to original site: Day Zero

I hope to make some template changes to this blog as well.

Happy New Year's everybody!

Finally!

So they are a bit pale. It was late at night and they were against a dark background. At any rate, I finished a project and that is exciting stuff. The pink one looks angry. I just think she doesn't like having her picture taken. I'll name her "Abigail" but since she is Bella Boo's, that name is subject to change. She really isn't angry. I'm looking at her right now and she has a big smile on her face.

The blue one is mine. I made him first. He doesn't have a name as of yet.

These are true-blue Waldorf dolls...everything all-natural. That is: Stuffed with wool, made with all cotton fabric. Aside from their ribbons, which are removable.

I'm just pleased as punch to have made something. I feel whole again.

Getting back on the creative edge....

Except, my skill level is in the dumps. Of course, I'm nearly five months pregnant with #5 and have spent the whole day shopping and then organizing patterns and my sewing area before I tried to sew. This pregnancy has left me so tired.

I scored some good fabrics at JoAnn's today. I also decided to try my hand at making a cigar box purse. We'll see how that turns out.

Still gathering baby clothes. I'm never getting rid of anything else again.

I became an auntie again on 11/22 when my new little niece, Laura, was born in Texas to my eldest sister Denise. Here's her cutie pic:




Doll face! Too darned cute. I wish I could hold her. As I type this, my little guy is kicking me hard.

I hope to be able to post some half-way decent stuffies in the next couple days. I'm just glad to be out of that depressive slump that had me vegging on the couch, doing nothing but watching TV. I wasn't even reading...I'm still not really reading.

Procrastination

What I *should* be doing right now is forming my final project for a class that I am pulling a 69% in. Nausea and family upset distracted me. I would think that it distracted me equally from both of the classes I am taking, yet I have a 96% in the other class, Fundamentals of Grammar and Editing. As it turns out, I love editing. To be more precise, I love editing OTHER'S writing. I personally don't believe in editing myself. Ever. Which is probably why I currently have a 69% in Ethics.

Don't let that fool you. I can be quite ethical. But it is hard, excruciatingly hard, for me to remain unbiased. I have my opinions and I believe them to be right. Otherwise, they wouldn't be (duh) my opinions. This type of attitude didn't bode well for me in a class where we had to come up with a group consensus weekly. I don't really like working with others because most people bug me. It's nothing personal. They are just idiots. And it bugs me further that I am in school with others who really need a refresher course in high school and don't have any business trying to form an essay at the college level. Again, not the attitude that my professor was looking for in his students. To his credit, though, he did a lot of fun class videos where he got people to act out the ethical dilemmas and he also made up crosswords and other word games to use in learning the current week's terminology. Great guy.

So, last I left off about my pregnancy is that I was nauseated 24/7. This remained to be true for a couple weeks, in which each day got progressively worse until I finally had to carry a bucket or bag with me everywhere I went because I was continually vomiting. I whined to my doctor at my first prenatal appointment, telling her that with each pregnancy I get worse nausea. She gave me suppositories. Groan if you must, but if sticking a waxy bullet where the sun doesn't shine (until now, of course) keeps me from hyperemesis (spelling?), I'll take it. I mean, you can see my dilemma: Continually barf out the mouth or stick a plug in the butt...which would you take?

So I can eat now. Which is good. I'm much less likely to kill people if my blood sugar levels are normal. I was beginning to think that I was going to be alright, until this damn heat wave came along. I can't handle the heat.

There is one huge reason I left Sacramento and that is the heat. And the fact that we lived in the ghetto. But I could have hung in the ghetto far longer if it was snowing or raining all the time. It was truly the 100+ degree heat that sent me whining far from South Sac. So I can't be for sure that I am no longer homicidal. Sure, I can eat, but it is so damned hot I still feel like running pedestrians over. Rude of them to make me slow down when I am trying to keep the wind tunnel effect going in the van. Plus, the wind noise drowns out the kids arguing with each other about the Nintendo DS, Nintendo Game Boy, the Playstation Portable and the current presidential candidates. All nonsense if you ask me.

I find it funny that anytime I am sick I play this game with myself. I always say, "Jennifer, if you can ever eat again without feeling sick to your stomach, be grateful. Never take it for granted ever again." This game started during my strep throat years (circa 1987-1992) in which I would replace "eat again" with "swallow without pain." I swore that for each day I could swallow without it feeling like I was swizzeling razor blades I would be eternally grateful. Down on my knees praising God and Jesus and all the healing saints in the world for the ability to...ahhh...swallow. Everyday. I think the gratitude lasted five minutes after the antibiotics kicked in.

So I keep saying to myself now, "Jennifer, when you are no longer pregnant, feel grateful for having a somewhat normal body with somewhat normal body functions." Wait...who am I kidding? I'm always pregnant.

Thera-blog, hormonal rage directed straight at my sisters...

I hate to come off as a vindictive bitch, but when you can not say what you want to say to the people in your life, such as your sisters, because doing so will put your beloved parents in the middle, yet you still need to get it off your chest---blogging is very therapeutic.

I'm done with my sisters and here's why:
1-Oldest sister has a secret. Didn't want anyone told. So of course, naturally, who'd she confide in? The Town Crier-Middle Sister.

2-Middle sister, who told your's truly about oldest sister's secret and then ASKED me to tell parents now using me as a scapegoat to oldest sister. "Jenny KNEW that you didn't want that secret told to anyone." P.S. I'm not "Jenny" anymore. The only people able to call me Jenny are Mom, Dad and Grandma. Maybe Aunt Donna. But that's it.

3-As a nice little zinger, oldest and middle sisters both have not inquired about my pregnancy. No, "How you feeling? What's up?"

Both of them have these LIFE DRAMAS that they think are not only so important, but also highly top secret. Listen, who the eff cares?

And since they are so wrapped up in their b.s. they do not read this blog. Works for me. Although I wouldn't have cared if they did.