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TIME OUT!

LET’S DANCE!

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Download: 01%20-%20Girl%20On%20Fire.mp3

Okay. Back to your regularly scheduled life.

I swear, music saves me from myself.

TIME OUT!

LET’S DANCE!

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Okay. Back to your regularly scheduled life.

I swear, music saves me from myself.

TIME OUT!

LET’S DANCE!

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Okay. Back to your regularly scheduled life.

I swear, music saves me from myself.

TIME OUT!

LET’S DANCE!

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Okay. Back to your regularly scheduled life.

I swear, music saves me from myself.

TIME OUT!

LET’S DANCE!

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Hell yeah, we can.

Okay. Back to your regularly scheduled life.

I swear, music saves me from myself.

TIME OUT!

LET’S DANCE!

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Okay. Back to your regularly scheduled life.

I swear, music saves me from myself.

I could work every day. I could.

I like working. I like having someplace to be at a certain time. I like that I’m forced to get up, get dolled up and be out the door at a certain time.

When I don’t have that, I lose focus. I find myself sitting around my house all morning long, in my jammies, listing my good intentions but never acting on them.

In short – I’m LAZY.

Right now, Kevin is working seven days a week. If he’s not doing the Turbo Tax/Intuit gig, he’s working on clients’ tax returns. He’s rarely home anymore and though I know he’s exhausted and quite ready to slow down and TAKE a day off, I’m a little jealous. Because even though I may grumble, and my body may complain, I think I’d like that.

Whenever it’s time for the weekend, or it’s time for vacation, I groan a little bit inside. Sure. It’s nice to have two days off, but after two days, I’m READY to go back to work.

It’s not so much THIS job that I love going back to, but rather, I enjoy the structure and the satisfaction I get out of producing something and being productive.

This is why I never really enjoyed being a stay-at-home-mom. Because I’m inherently lazy and not having any structure really threw me for a loop. And if you want the God’s awful truth, it sort of depressed me.

Please don’t misunderstand, I’m GRATEFUL that I was able to stay home with the boys all those years. I wouldn’t trade that experience, or that time, for anything. It was my duty, and my pleasure, to be available for them: I made the choice to have children, I made the choice to raise those children.

But I was SO READY to go back to work. To contribute to society – to be useful.

To someone other than children, that is.

Now that the boys are young men and really have no use for me anymore, and Kevin has been so busy with work, and will continue to be crazy busy until the end of April, I find that I have a lot more time on my hands. In some respect, MOMMA LIKES. I can read whenever I want to. I can watch whatever I want to. I can take cat naps whenever I want to. I can put off housework until one hour before Kevin comes home … it’s nice. It’s nice having that freedom. It’s nice not having anyone demand any of my time … my time has become my own once again.

And it’s …. weird. Nice. But weird. I’m savoring this time; it’s balm on my soul and retribution for all those years I didn’t have time to myself when the boys were growing up.

But too much time and I get into too much trouble.

I love working. I love making good use out of my time and I love getting paid for my time.

So yes. I could work seven days a week.

I really could.

TIME OUT!

LET’S DANCE!

I dare you not to tap your foot or snap your fingers to this song.

Double-dog-dare you.

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Okay. Back to your regularly scheduled life.

I swear, music saves me from myself.

TIME OUT!

LET’S DANCE!

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Okay. Back to your regularly scheduled life.

I swear, music saves me from myself.

TIME OUT!

Close your eyes. Breathe. Let this song wash over you like warm water. Ahhhhhh … love this song.

(Click the blue arrow to play)

I swear, music saves me from myself.

Okay. Back to your regularly scheduled life.

TIME OUT!

LET’S DANCE!

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Okay. Back to your regularly scheduled life.

I swear, music saves me from myself.

TIME OUT!

LET’S DANCE!

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Okay. Back to your regularly scheduled life.

I swear, music saves me from myself.

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Ol’ Saint Nicholas: by Doris Day

I hear this song on the Satellite Dish Christmas channel no fewer than eleven times a day.

But I love it every time I hear it.

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Give Me All Your Love: by Madonna

This song makes me feel YOUNG.

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(Music – it’s good for the soul. Get up and dance it out – you’ll feel better. )

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Need You Now by Lady Antebellum

This song makes me feel NEEDY.

I’m not sure I like that feeling, actually.

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(Music – it’s good for the soul. Get up and dance it out – you’ll feel better. )

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Blow by Ke$ha

This song makes me feel BAD ASS.

Like a character out of Mission Impossible.

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(Music – it’s good for the soul. Get up and dance it out – you’ll feel better. )

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Part of Me by Katy Perry

This song makes me feel STRONG.

I AM WHO I AM. *snap*

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(Music – it’s good for the soul. Get up and dance it out – you’ll feel better. )

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People

This song makes me feel SNEAKY.

Can’t you just SEE children crouching behind objects, peeking around the corners? I can …

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(Music – it’s good for the soul. Get up and dance it out – you’ll feel better. )

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Rolling in the Deep by Adele

This song makes me feel WISHFUL.

“We could have had it all …” *fist shake*

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(Music – it’s good for the soul. Get up and dance it out – you’ll feel better. )

(Click the blue arrow to play)

Stronger: What Doesn’t Kill You by Kelly Clarkson

This song makes me feel DETERMINED. And there are days I NEED to hear the message in this song.

Stay strong, friends.

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(Music – it’s good for the soul. Get up and dance it out – you’ll feel better. )

I’m kidding, of course. For those out there that don’t have a sense of humor.

You know who you are.

Jazz’s driving “lessons” are going well. He’s catching on pretty quickly. We’re still having trouble staying in the lane – he tends to drive on the edge of the road, which makes me ride on the edge of my seat. I’m constantly having to point to his side of the car to indicate he needs to get over.

His corners are better – we no longer turn them on two wheels. (You only THINK I’m joking).

He’s been driving to school – We almost hit a kid in the school parking lot the other day. To be fair, it wasn’t totally Jazz’s fault. These high school kids have a tendency to walk in front of the cars without bothering to get over. I guess they think they’re being “tough” and “cool” when we know they’re being “idiots.” There’s a portion of the parking lot where you have to turn left. In the meantime, there are kids driving toward the back lot and you have kids that have parked in the back lot that are walking to the school.

So. You are trying to avoid being T-boned by an oncoming car and trying to drive around teenagers who refuse to yield.

Fun stuff.

We drove the busier roads today. He did really well. We drove all around the outskirts of town. We’ll drive those roads several more times before hitting the highways. It’s supposed to rain Wednesday – I’ll probably have him drive to school that day too, so he can start getting some experience driving in rain.

Then. Night driving. *gulp*

And parallel parking. But Kevin is in charge of that because I SUCK at parallel parking. I always have.

I’m thinking he will be ready to take his test in March. Since it’s dark when I get off work, that only leaves the weekends to practice driving, so we don’t really have very many opportunities to drive.

I took a short video of him today. He was cranky because I made him stop playing his precious video game and go driving. (*GASP* Tough toenails). I would have pushed it (because I’m mean like that), but I didn’t want to distract him too much.

I have to say, I’m ready for him to get his license. It will make it SO MUCH easier on everyone when he’s driving on his own.

Jazz had a buddy from school come over yesterday so they could finish up a project for their Earth Science class. They built a structure that is supposed to withstand a rocking table for two minutes. In other words, a structure that can withstand an adolescent earthquake. They were given some wooden rods, glue and a base. That’s it. This is what they came up with …

If it doesn’t stand the shake test in class tomorrow, he’ll only get 50%. Which will drop his overall grade, which is third highest in his class right now.

So, he’s a bit stressed. And I’ll be praying the thing holds together.

It was a gloomy, typical December day in the Ozarks. Cold and overcast. It feels like snow, but I don’t think we’ll get any snow. Then again, our weather is unpredictable so … you never know.

Correction, make that ice.

Awesome.

Kevin and I ran up to his office today … he couldn’t resist putting a little tree up.

Aw.

He had to print out pictures of his pelvis, both before and after his motorcycle accident. He’s meeting with our lawyer tomorrow … and that’s all I can say about that.

It’s pretty obvious that he loves his office …

… don’t ya think?

After we left his office, we went to Walmart so I could pick up a game that I had shipped from site to store (because I suspect we have a neighborhood creep stealing our mail/packages), and we bought these goodies.

Kevin picked up cards for an 18-year old boy and an 8-year old girl at a radio station last week and we went shopping for them. The girl wanted a Barbie doll and an MP3 player (I can’t believe how cheap shuffles are now), and the boy wanted tools so he could use them to work with. Kevin had a ball with this one. We bought him some sort of screwdriver set, a toolbox, a gift card and Kevin cleaned out some odds and ends in the garage that he has never used – so the boy will get a few surprises when he opens his toolbox.

We LOVE shopping for foster children. It’s heart warming to do something for them. I just wish we could do more. My heart breaks for these children that, for whatever reason, have been abandoned by their parents.

I hope you’ll find it in your heart to donate to needy children this holiday season.

Afterwards, I dragged Kevin to Shoe Carnival. I needed to buy some dress flats to wear whenever I have to work outlying clinics at work and when I tried these beauties on and they felt so good, I simply bought the same style but different color. (Can you see the difference? One is black, the other is navy).

That pretty much sums up my cl

I must, must, MUST, get my caffeine intake under control.

See. I worked the Harrison clinic (more on that in a minute), and I just figured they would have coffee that I could steal, ER, buy, (I’m not totally cheap), at some point during the day.

I learned, on the way down to Harrison today, that the clinic did not have coffee anywhere close to where we would be setting up. So, the girls I rode down there with today stopped at a really awesome bakery/cafe (“The Mills” if you’re down that way), and HO BOY, did they have muffins to DIE for?!? I also bought some coffee, which YAY.

Only. I left it in the van and we were too busy for me to run out and get it and plus, I was too embarrassed to ask the gal for the keys so I could get it. As a result? I didn’t have my coffee intake for today.

See where I’m going with this?

Yep. I had one KILLER migraine on the way home from Harrison. And I wasn’t driving, so add car sickness to that and I was literally swallowing back bile. Luckily, I’m not the only person who gets car sick, so they already had a large measuring container in the car in case anyone needed to lose their lunch. LUCKILY, I had some Excedrin Migraine on me and I took it (actually, I will NEVER be without it again, quite frankly) and though I wanted to throw up in the car, it kicked in before we arrived back to Springfield and I was pain free the rest of the day.

Though I did have a massive nosebleed later in the evening, which I attribute to taking too many Excedrin Migraines, which has aspirin, which thins my already thin blood but … I’m only speculating at this point … I’m not a doctor…

I only WORK with doctors. HA!

So on future out-of-town clinic days? I’m going to brew myself some coffee and drink that stuff first thing so I (hopefully) won’t develop a headache later on.

Of course, some of my headache could be stress related … I don’t know …

Anyhoo…

The drive down there was not bad at all. I was thinking we were going to be stuck on some curvy roads, and we would have been, but they had extended the highway, so save for the hills, it wasn’t that bad of a drive. The clinic is pretty small and my job is to check patients in, and out, and show them to their exam rooms … sometimes all at the same time. It’s busy and crazy, but honestly, I’m sort of getting used to this crazy, busy pace now so it wasn’t AS big of a deal as it’s been in the past.

We had Arby’s for lunch, but didn’t have time to actually TAKE lunch, so we stole bites of food in between patients.

I actually dressed up in business casual clothes today, which was awesome, but I made the mistake of wearing heels and … NEVER AGAIN. There’s just too much going on for me to wear heels. I’m unloading laptops, setting up laptops, up and down with patients and it’s just too much in heels. Plus, I’m like the Jolly Green Giant compared to the gals I rode down with today. One of the gals is only 4′ 11″ and with me wearing heels? I’m like a whole foot and a half taller than her!!

I do NOT like that feeling at all. I already feel like an Amazon woman anyway, so wearing heels just makes it ten times worse.

So. Note to self: buy flats. Like these beauties for instance.

We only had 14 patients, but it felt like less – because the day went by so fast, I guess. I honestly have no time to think of anything but what I’m supposed to do so I have zero time to even THINK about what time it is, let alone SEE what time it is.

I love that, actually.

We took the company van down there. I think next time, I’m going to offer to drive because then I won’t have to worry about getting car sick, I’ll only have to worry about not crashing and killing ev

I’m tired.

But what else is new.

I’m going to Harrison on Friday.

As in Arkansas.

I know you’re silently screaming FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, KAREN, WHY?!?!

I’ll answer that silent scream with, “Because I opened my big, fat mouth and volunteered to learn outlying clinics and *POOF* they took me up on it and now I HAVE TO TRAVEL WITH PERFECT STRANGERS AND REALLY SMART DOCTORS.”

God help me.

Also?

We spent three hours with a contractor last night.

We are very excited.

But I’m too tired to go into details … yet.

Soon, my pretties, soon.

I just spent thirty minutes proof reading Jazz’s Volcano brochure. Even though I had to pinch myself to stay awake three times. I also uploaded it to Kinko’s so they could print it out – we’ll pick it up tomorrow after dinner.

I’m making Jazz drive over there.

He doesn’t know that part.

Remind me to tell you about yesterday … when Jazz nearly ran a kid over in the school parking lot driving himself to school.

I’m totally not kidding.

I’m such a tease, aren’t I.

Soon, my pretties, soon

Are you taking time out of your busy schedules to take a breath, appreciate the season and listen to some good old fashioned Christmas music?

Well, WHY NOT?!?

Do it now.

Or I will go all Grinch-y on you.

Also. Where did November go!?!

(This isn’t exactly “old-fashion” Christmas music, but whatev).

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