To What Do You Aspire?

Little J and I had a conversation on the way home from the Royals game Friday night about what he wanted to be when he grew up. It started with us seeing a taxi on the highway and went something like this:

Little J: What do you have to do to become a taxi driver?

Me: Um, probably drop out of school and not have a good enough education to do anything else.

Little J: Huh? What's an education?

Me: What you get when you go to school and then go to college. It's how you learn certain skills so you can get a job.

Little J: Oh. So what do you have to do to become a limo driver?

Me: Pretty much the same thing as what you have to do to be a taxi driver.

Little J: What if you just want to buy all the taxis or limos?

Me: Then you would own the company and be the boss of all the drivers.

Little J: Ooooh! (thinking...) So what about a policeman?

Me: Policeman have to go through a special academy to learn how to be a policeman.

Little J: Like how to shoot bad guys?

Me: Some. They have to know how to keep safe while taking down the bad guys and how to help in emergencies and things like that.

Little J: Hmmm. So what about people who build buildings?

Me: What about them?

Little J: How do you become someone who does that?

Me: That depends. Do you want to be the one who comes up with the idea for what kind of building should be built or the one who is actually doing all the work building it?

Little J: Both. Well, the one that comes up with the ideas.

Me: Then you need to go to college and get a degree to be an architect.

Little J: What's a degree?

Me: It's what you get after you go to college and learn how to do something. You take certain classes to learn what you want to be able to do and after you are done with them then you have a degree in that subject. And if you have a degree, you usually can get paid more money.

Little J: Do you have to go to college?

Me: Only if you want to get a good job that pays you lots of money.

Little J: Oh. Bummer.

So there you have it. My son will either be a taxi driver, a limo driver, or the owner of said companies, a policeman, or an architect. But hopefully he will go to college either way.

Bonus Material:

We saw an SUV with "Just Married" written on the windows. I pointed it out to the boys saying, "Look that car says just married." To which Little J replies,"How can a car get married? Does it kiss another car?"

The Vandal Strikes Again

Remember this post?







How naive was I to think it was all behind me now?








I present to you The "Yo" Collection:





Still looking for more pieces to add to the collection...

What possesses him, I will never know.

I Should Go to Vegas, Baby!

Really I should. I'm on a winning streak. I've recently gotten into blog giveaways. My sister is a serious blogger and actually makes money with her blog, and she is the one who got me into the giveaways. Since I started signing up for them (which has only been since the beginning of this month), I have won 4 giveaways! For real. I have won the brand new Disney DVD: Mickey's Club House "Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland". I won a 24x24 wall print of my choice. I won a Kernel Season's 3 Flavor Gift Basket. And I have won 2 free Sun Detergents. Giveaways are fun and so easy and quick to enter! Here are a few I am in now. Go check them out and test your luck! (Or don't and up my chances of winning!! :-)

1. Rolled 18 x 24 Poster Print Giveaway: here and here (same prize, different contests)

2. A Month Supply of Luvs Diapers Giveaway: here

3. Yoplait Whips! Summer Cool Down Gift Bag Giveaway: here

4. Kaskey Kids Sports Action Figure Set Giveaway: here

5. Eden Fantasies $25 Gift Certificate: here

6. Lysol Disinfectant Giveaway: here

7. $20 Giftcard to Shade Clothing: here

The Definition of CUTE!!!!

Now tell me that didn't just brighten your day!

A Summary of the Last Few Days - in Questions

1. Has your 6-year-old ever put dried beans and corn kernels in your bed as a joke?

2. Don't you think it is pathetic that I need to cut 6 minutes off my current Fat-A time to get back down to my "before" time on the 5k?

3. Have you ever received a "Patriotic Star" at school for good behavior like Little J?

4. Isn't it great that Big J started piano lessons?

5. Did you know my doctor said that in 6 months I can probably try to start weaning off my high blood pressure medicine?

6. How exciting is it that I won a free Disney DVD "Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland" from a blog giveaway?

6. Can you believe my little girl is 3 months old today?

I Remember

"We love death. The U.S. loves life.

That is the big difference between us."

- Osama Bin Laden

It is amazing to me that it has already been 8 years since 9/11. I'm sure everyone has their "where were you?" moment when you found out what was happening. For me, I was in the kitchen of our six-plex apartment in Provo, Utah, feeding Big J a breakfast of cut up bananas and Cheerios. He was 12 days away from his 1st birthday. JC was out of town on a business trip in Atlanta. (He was actually suppose to fly back that day, but when all the air traffic was shutdown, he didn't make it back for three more days). He was the one who called me and asked if I was watching the news. I wasn't, and so he told me planes had been flown into the World Trade Center buildings. I turned it on in time to see the first building fall. I remember I just stood there shocked. Not even comprehending exactly what I was watching.

And then I prayed.

I saw a documentary about 9/11 this week on the National Geographic Channel and seeing the footage brought back the same sadness and disbelief I felt the day it happened. I am not a great journal keeper (hence the blog) but it just so happens that when this happened I had just started a journal about a month before and was writing in it regularly. Here are a few excerpts from what I wrote that day:

"...I cannot even describe what I feel. As I watched with the rest of the world in horror as footage of the actual planes crashing into the buildings, of the smoke and fire and debris, of the massive destruction, of the fear in the faces of the people running for their lives, of people choosing to jump to their death instead of being burned alive, of the towers crashing to the ground...the list goes on...I felt fear, disgust, and shock. The security (possibly false) that I had always taken for granted in this country was suddenly undermined. I just kept asking, "How could this happen?!"...

I think about how many lives have been directly and indirectly changed today. Those thousands of people who died just got up and went to work or got on a plane and now they are dead. I can't imagine the terror the people in those hijacked planes must have felt as they realized what was happening. These were normal moms and dads, sisters and brothers, co-workers and friends and now they are dead. It makes me sick and very, very sad...

There have been monumental things happen during my lifetime (to name a few - the Cold War, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall coming down, the Challenger blowing up, the Oklahoma City bombings, Columbine, the Gulf War - even things like CDs, the first colored pictures in the newspaper, the Internet, etc.) but I know I will remember this day, these images, and these feelings most of all...

It's crazy to think I've been a witness to all this. It frightens me to think what kind of atrocities are to follow. What kind of world will my kids have to face? I watched *Big J* playing and laughing and learning today just as he does everyday, having no idea history was being made. I wished I could just hold him and protect him from all the evil in the world. But then just as quickly as that thought came, the thought that he is our future also came. He is the embodiment of pureness, innocence, and righteousness. He is the embodiment of the light and hope I still feel. There is evil in the world, and a lot of it, but there is also goodness - a lot more of it. And that goodness will prevail."

On Weightier Matters

I'm fat. I'm not saying that as a 16-year-old teenybop in a size 2 that wants all her friends to go "oh you so aren't!" or as one of those stick people who say this when they get a little bloated. I am overweight and out of shape. I am trying to fix both of these things, but the fact that it is even a fact is depressing.

I gain a lot of weight when I'm pregnant. Every single time. With or without exercise. Winter or summer. Old or young. Since the day I gave birth to Little Miss, I have lost 43 pounds total. I realize this is like twice the amount of weight a lot of my friends even gain when pregnant. Since a week after having Little Miss, I have lost 25 pounds. All this would sound like I am really excited and bragging or something except for the fact that to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight I still need to lose 14 pounds. That's right - I gained 57 pounds when I was pregnant.

*Cue fat picture:

Taken at 39 weeks the day before I was induced with Little Miss.

To get to my ideal/goal weight I still need to lose 33 pounds because even though I was "fit" before I got pregnant, I was still too heavy. And what's even really more sad than that is that that goal weight is on the high end of what is recommended for my height and not even the lowest I've weighed as an adult. It is actually 15 pounds heavier than what I would consider the perfect weight for me. Are you keeping up? Anyway...

Now that that little whine is all out -

It has worked for me before to post my goals and report because then people are asking me about them and I don't want to feel like a loser. Except for the fact I want to be a loser - of weight - yeah, you get my point. So my immediate goal is to lose the 14 pounds to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I will do this by the last day of October. Lofty? Maybe. But I'm going to rock it! By next summer, I will be my ideal weight. *gulp* First things first, though.

I've been watching what I eat and I have started to run a little again. The word "run" being used as liberally as possible. *What's that sound I hear? Oh, it's my thighs rubbing together!*I signed up for the KC 5k on October 17th as a motivator. Funny that last year at the same event I was running the 1/2 marathon. Hmmm....

I know I need to exercise every day so I am going to start doing that and hopefully I won't totally suck by the run. My issue is time management right now. Because you wouldn't believe how often I walk around in my workout stuff and other things take over. I just need to do it.

So there you have it! Full confessions and what I'm going to do about it.