Meet Me on Monday

Questions:
1.  What is your favorite way to eat potatoes?

Either in baked potato soup or as loaded baked potatoes!

2.  What was the last package that was delivered to your house?

a new Longchamps bag!!  (haha Atlanta Yankee Belle and I have the same answer)

3.  What is your favorite scent that you love to smell?

right now, Twilight Woods from Bath and Body Works.  It smells so different from anything I’ve ever smelled before and makes the best home fragrance!

4.  Do you smoke?

ew no.  My hubs does but is trying to quit.

5.  Are your parents married or divorced?

married

**To link up to Meet Me on Monday, visit Never Growing Old’s blog!**

getting to know you…

my bloggy/Twitter/IRL friend-o Yankee Belle B posted this and I just couldn’t help but pass it along on my own blog.  In high school, surveys were THE thing for people to do.  Everyone wanted their own opinion out there and that’s pretty much what blogging is!  Read on to find out more about me!!

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

I really think I’ve found it!  I am completely happy with my marriage, with who I am, and (almost) with where I live.  Sure, I don’t make much money.  Yes, we still worry about how we’ll pay our bills.  No, I do not have a teaching job yet.  But I wake up every morning with excitement and with a purpose and I think that’s just about the biggest blessing there is.

What is your greatest fear?
Losing my husband and not being able to have a family.  Also, right now, I’m afraid I won’t get a teaching job anytime soon and we’ll continue living our below-poverty-line life.

Which figures do you most identify with?

Obviously I identify with new wives.  Marriage is such a different world than being single or even dating.  Everything I do is influenced by the fact that my life is not just my own.  Other women who are in the same boat as me are definitely who I identify with.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I wish I didn’t have to work so hard on giving my actions intentionality.  I want to do things with my whole heart and with a full purpose.  I sometimes (most of the time) struggle with that and really wish I didn’t.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?
HA!  Right now I’m having trouble respecting people who won’t allow others to be happy, even if that happiness is different, or contrary to, the happiness they desire.  Cryptic much?

What do you most value in your friends?
I love that, no matter how long it’s been since I saw or spoke to my friends, we always start right where we left off.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Holy guacamole!  or oh geeze…

What is your favorite journey?
The journey that hubs and I are on to build and sustain this life together.  It’s bumpy and rough sometimes, but I always know that he’s right there beside me.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
um I have no idea.  Maybe, these days, frugality?  (I found a list of virtues online and this one was on it).  I’ve been spending a good deal of money, so that one’s overrated to me right now.

What is your favorite occupation?
TEACHING!!!  I absolutely love everything about being a teacher.  Even the bureaucracy and disobedient students delight me when I’m in the classroom.

What do you dislike most about your appearance?
My multiple chins.  Ew.

What is your greatest regret?
The way certain actions of mine were handled by my family.  I regret that some people are not able to move part their judgment of my actions to be happy for and proud of those actions.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

Hubs, for sure.

When and where were you happiest?
Right now.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would increase my motivation for physical fitness!

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
My Bachelor of Arts from Agnes Scott College, Masters of Arts in Teaching from University of Southern California, Georgia teaching certification in Early Childhood AND Middle Grades, and my marriage- all by the age of 24.

What is your most treasured possession?

iPhone 4

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
feeling unwanted

Where would you like to live?
I love where we live now, just with a bit less traffic!

What is your most marked characteristic?

My ability to engage children in a positive and educational manner

What is your greatest extravagance?
it’s between craft materials, things from Etsy, and handbags.  Also food haha

What are the qualities you most like in a man?
Loyalty, integrity, devotion, and great sense of humor

Who are your favorite writers?
I love writers who know how to engage with the English language instead of just manipulating it.  I think there’s a marked difference.  My favorite author is Gabriel Garcia Marquez and my favorite blog writer is Shannan, the Flower Patch Farmgirl.

How would you like to die?
quietly and peacefully

What is your motto?

Only when enough adults practice and teach children love and respect at home, in schools, religious congregations, and in our political and civic life will racial, gender, and religious intolerance and hate crimes subside in America and the world.
- Marian Wright Edelman

Am I even still a blogger?

don’t hate me.

seriously.

I realize it’s been approximately a month and a week since I last blogged.  and that was a blog about my drapey kitty-son.

I suck.

in my defense, hubs and I decided shortly after that blog post to find a new apartment and the time since then has been an adventure.

when we first decided to move, we knew we’d have to save a lot of money for a deposit (both standard and pet), moving fees, etc.  because of that, we drastically cut our budget down to barebones.  whiiiiiich meant: no. more. crafting.

my measly $20 a week craft budget went to ZERO.  what would I blog about without my crafts??

so I stopped blogging.  we found an apartment and, thanks to hubs’ lovely tax return, we are moving…

TOMORROW!

everything is packed and ready to be loaded on the truck.  my lovely bloggy-friend/ new IRL almost-bff Yankee Belle B is coming to help and we are READY!!

aaaaaand I’m BACK!!

drapeycat

this is how my kitty son sits, pretty much every night.

 

seriously.

mm mm good!

have you read this blog?

every time I read Shannan’s blog, I either sob bittersweet tears or laugh so hard I almost wet my pants.  she is just that wonderful.  I want to go to wherever it is she’s from, hang out with her and her babies (all adopted from different countries), and be her bff.  absolutely almost-creepy-stalker-like love her.

she posted a recipe for chicken artichoke pizza a while back.  hubs and I ate it tonight and duh!  it was completely delish.

here is a link to the recipe: Chicken Artichoke Pizza!

we substituted one package of Knorr vegetable soup mix for the Tastefully Simple one she used because that one is discontinued. but it was still totally easy to make and sooooo yummy!!

go visit Shannan’s blog and fall in lurve with her and her cutie-babies!

giveawaypalooza

I've posted before about how much I want a Silhouette.

I want one of these so much that I am even willing to blog about the giveaways that are happening, even though I won't blog about other giveaways.

There are three different giveaways going on right now:

(Shelley makes some of the most awesome vinyl things in the universe)

AND

(This is a super cute blog that I just started following.)

AND

Click on the blog header links to go to each giveaway and enter!!  Good luck (but I really hope I win ;) )

where do we go from here

My real New Year’s Resolution is to blog more.  Husband’s is to wear more sweatpants… the love of my life, ladies and gentlemen.  sheesh.

I am in a place in my life that I’m not sure I’m prepared for.  When you’re a single girl, you have a ton in common with a lot of people; the pool of single people is pretty large.  Then, when you’re in a committed relationship, that pool shrinks just a little.  You lose a little bit of what you had in common with your single friends.  Then you get engaged and married and your pool gets even tinier (particularly when you’re as young as I am).  My priorities are completely different from my single friends’ priorities. 

Right now, I’m in the married, no kids pool.  It’s a pretty great pool, I guess.  It’s not a very easy pool for me to be in though.  Husband is seven years older than me.  Most of his friends have already been married for five or six years.  They also have children.

Children are a complete game changer, in many ways.  One of the big ways it changes your life comes in how you interact and relate to other people.  It becomes a major topic of conversation and the common denominator between you and your friends.

If you don’t have kids, you don’t have that common denominator- meaning, I don’t have that common denominator.  I feel like I have a really hard time connecting and relating to people who have kids because I’m not “in the club.”

Anyone else who is “married, no kids” have these same feelings?  How do you deal with feeling as though you can’t relate or you’re not a part of the fun?