Steve Jobs

Do what you love & Don't settle

These are two things that Steve Jobs said that I really loved and agreed with. When he said do what you love I really understood that. That is exactly what I told my husband I had to do when I gave up my job at Diesel Exchange for a job in childcare. I made fifteen dollars a hour, had good health insurance, and a nice 401K but I gave it all up for a job that pays eight dollars a hour and offers no benefits. My husband didn't want me to do that and even gave me a guilt trip about it. "You are hurting the whole family by giving all that up. What if something happens to us or the kids and we no longer have health insurance? How are we going to have money to retire if you give up the 401K?" He really tried to work on me to not quit but I just told him that I would rather go to work everyday and struggle financially with a job I love getting up every morning and going to verus a job that I do good financially but dread getting up every morning to go to. To me this was a no brainer...it took me a long time to convience him. Sometimes he still questions it but he understands me a whole lot better since he had to make a similar decision a couple of years ago. He gave up a nice, secure job at Reliable Chevy (that he had for fifteen years) to start his own shop; his income dropped down drastically and his job security went out the window.

But looking back at all of it and the decisions we both had to make....We wouldn't change a thing.

We are both doing something that we love and therefore are a lot happier for it. The atmosphere at home has completely changed in the last five years. We both come home from work less stressed and we both don't mind going to work every morning. Our kids have both noticed a difference. Our hours at work are different so we have more time to spend together as a family.

Doing something you love is probably one of the best things a person can do for themselves. I have done it, my husband has done it, and we are both better people because of it.

I lied

My sister called me this morning and wanted to come over to my house when I got off work to borrow my computer for a little bit. At 10am I told her it was okay but by the time I got home I didn't feel like company so I called her and told her that I was tired and not feeling good so could she please come over another evening. I wasn't that tired but I just didn't feel like company tonight. I feel like my writing this I am justifying myself.

• My nephew is high strung so he would have spent all night either bugging us about something all evening or he would have spent the evening in my son's room messing it up.
• I have homework to turn in tonight so I would need the computer myself. 
• There is show on tv I want to watch and I wouldn't be able to do it if she was here
• I had a rough day and work and all I want to do is put on my pajamas and lay on the couch

I'm sure these reasons are not good enough but I did it anyway. I'm sure this little white lie will come back to bite me sometime but for now I'm going to bed in a nice quiet house.

An eventful weekend

This weekend has been a long weekend. Saturday morning I was up by 6am. Apple Butter Makin' Days in Mt. Vernon was calling me name. I took a quick shower, got dressed and put my make-up on. Then it was time to get the kids up and ready to go. On my way out of town I had to stop at my daughter's friend's house to pick her up. Then I had to drive out to Halltown to pick up my mom, sister, and her two kids. Finally 8:45am and I am in Mt. Vernon. I had enough time to look at a couple of rows of craft booths before the parade started. The kids enjoyed it. Bridget (my twelve year old daughter), her best friend, Zach (my eight year old son), and Clayton (my twelve year old newphew) all stayed at the front of the line for the next hour and fifteen minutes picking up candy that the parade participants threw to the spectators. The parade was fun. There were marching bands from all over, old cars, clowns, politicans, church groups, girl scouts, and boy scouts all there in the parade. After the parade we all started walking all around the square looking at the craft booths that were set up. I saw a few things that I would like to make myself and I saw a few things that I thought anyone could make those. At noon we all bought some amazing food and sat on the courthouse lawn to eat our lunch. The weather was perfect for this kind of activity. I finally left Mt. Veron at 2:30pm.
     I headed over to my parents' house to hang with the family for a little bit before heading out to the Vernona Corn Maze. When it got close to dark we headed out. My son gets scared easily so I had planned to go before it was dark but he said that if the people only jumped out and screamed he thought he could handle it ~ as long as they didn't touch him he said it wouldn't be to scary. How wrong he was! So we gave it a try. I walked through the entire corn maze with my eight year old clinging to my shirt, one arm wrapped around his shaking body, and one hand covering his eyes. It was funny. Instead of scaring us all the employees kept asking me if he was okay. Our group consisted of fourteen family members and my daughter's friend. The men in my family love to try to scare the women and children. So throughout the maze they took turns walking away from the group to only catch back up with us and scare us. My daughter's friend was scared easily because she didn't know to expect the men to keep doing that so finally at one point, after just being scared by another family member, she shouted "What is wrong with your family". All of us stopped and laughed. It was so funny. No one even had an explaination for her. At least her friend was a good sport about all of it. We finally got home around 10pm.
          Sunday was no better. I got to sleep in until 8am but as soon as I got up it was time to run to Wal-Mart to get the grocery shopping for my family for the week. Wal-Mart had very few lines open at 10am and the few lines they did have open was manned by sssssllllloooooowwwwww cashiers. I get home just in time to quickly put away the groceries. I still had to print iron on transfers to attach to two t-shirts for a birthday party we had to be at at noon. I got them done and we left the house twenty minutes after the party started. The party was for a friends little boy who was turning two. The little boy is adorable. He has white blonde hair and blue eyes. But don't let his looks fool you. He is an onery but in a kind hearted way. He has very nice manners and is very lovey but the boy just never sits still. No one can say the party didn't go out without a bang. One of the adult guest had left his very nice cell phone sitting on his chair when he got up to talk to someone. The birthday boy saw it and ran over to grab it. He picked it up and started running as fast as his little legs would move. My son and I saw him. Zach ran after him to try to catch him before he did something he shouldn't have but my son was a second to late. The minute the little boy thought he was about to get caught he decided to get rid of the evidence. He chuck the phone into the fire pit as hard as he could. I jumped up and ran over shouting there is a phone in the fire. Someone else close by grabbed a piece of wood and tried to scoot the phone to the edge of the fire. I picked up the phone and sat it on the ground. Someone told the owner of the phone that his phone was in the fire. He thought they were joking until he looked over and saw all us bend over starring at something on the ground. He walked over and yelled, "My phone!" Now he realized we were not joking. I'm not sure who cried first...the owner of the phone or the birthday boy's mom when she realized her son is the one who threw it in the fire.
          When I got home the kids and I decorated the house for Halloween and picked out our Halloween costumes.
          Now all is done and I'm taking a break before making dinner, cleaning the kitchen back up, and getting homework done. Sometimes it seems like my weekends are busier than the weekdays but I love it and wouldn't change it for anything.

This is my all time favorite saying

Preteens

          Tonight my daughter had her best friend over at the house. I got to leave work early so I thought it would be okay for her to come over for a few hours until after dinner. The girls were so funny. As I stood in the kitchen cooking dinner and baking a cake I over hear the girls talking outside the kitchen window. (it's not cool to hang out in the kitchen with mom) All I kept hearing was "I know, right?", "Dude","She said what", and endless giggling . I couldn't help but laugh to myself as I heard all this. I couldn't believe what they were saying and how they were saying it. They sounded so silly. Then I started thinking back to when I was younger. Surely I didn't sound that silly. But I guess I did. I can't help but laugh out loud at the things we said back then. "Gag me with a spoon", "Dude", "Totally Awesome", "Psych", "Take a Chill Pill", and "In Your Dreams". If I even tried to tell my children about the things we used to say they would be rolling all over the floor laughing at me.
          I remember laughing at my mom. I told her that I was "going out" with a boy one time and she said oh, okay where are you going? I remember trying for ever to explain to her what it meant but she just had a confused look on her face the entire time. Finally, I said we were dating. You could see the light bulb come one. She said "Oh, I get it. You two are going steady!" I rolled my eyes, shook my head, and bluntly told her that NO one says "steady" anymore.
         I really hope that as my children grow up the old becomes the new new and they will speak the same language that I did when I was younger and then maybe I will understand them when they do talk to me.

Your Only as Young as You Feel

I don’t like the saying “you are only as old as you feel”. To me this is negative and makes you feel even older. I prefer to say you are only as young as you feel. As I write this it is hard to believe that many of my classmates, and half of my employees, are fourteen to fifteen years younger than me. I don’t feel that much older than them. It’s hard to imagine that I was crossing the stage to accept my high school diploma the same year that they were carrying their kindergarten mat on their first day of school.

When people find out that I have kids many ask me how old they are. I feel strange saying that they are eight and twelve. I don’t feel like my children should be that old. I feel like it was just yesterday that my youngest started to crawl. I have been married for thirteen years. Wow! That is almost the age difference between me and some of my classmates.

I have arthritis in my hands. It is something that runs in my family. We usually start getting it in our teenage years. There are some days when the arthritis is so bad that I can barely hold a pencil in a grip tight enough to write my name on a piece of paper. I have thrown my back out many times and when it happens it causes me to either walk hunched over like an old woman or makes it difficult for me to walk for a couple of days.

Age is just a state of mind. I believe you are as young as you feel. If you feel young inside then it doesn’t really matter what your body says. Everyone should feel young at heart.

My grandma lived her life like this. As kids we would tease my grandma about her age and she would say it is just a number. The only thing it means is that she has had more birthdays than us but she is the same age as us. As a kid I used to think it was a bunch of bull that she would feed us to get us to stop teasing her. Now at the age I am, I am just now realizing how right she was. Until the last six months I never even considered the thought that I was any older than some of my classmates or my employees.

I try to live my life like I’m still young, although maybe a little smarter than I was then. I will never use the excuse I can’t because I’m too old. That is something that my children, and my grandchildren (when I eventually get some – hopefully in a long time) will never hear me say.

Some say the secret to a long life is being active, which again plays a part in my belief. Young adults are the most active. If you feel young inside you will want to do more things and therefore be more active.

I don’t like the people that say “I can’t. I’m too old for that.” You can never be too old to try or do anything.

I believe my job helps keep my young. I get to run around outside playing red light green light, mother may I, and tag. Inside I get to sit on the floor and color, put together puzzles, string beads. In the classroom I get to use my imagination. I can put a hat on and be a construction worker, I can stack blocks up really tall and be an architect, and I can put a dress on and be the world’s best dancer.

My children at home are the same way. At home I can help my son with his martial arts stunts and his shooting aim. I can help my daughter with her cheers and her gymnastics tricks.

With so many opportunities throughout the day for me to feel young it is a wonder if I will ever feel like I am getting old. I hope not. I love feeling like this. I truly believe that you are only as young as you feel.

What's in the way?

What is in my way?????? I have to work today until 6 pm. Normally not a big deal but I have homework that is due Sunday. I would like to get it done today because the O'Reilly Street Machine Nationals is this weekend and I want to go. I will probably go anyway but then my homework will suffer some because I will be in a hurry. Also my family will suffer because beside the Street Machine Nationals I will not be able to spend anytime with them this weekend...I will be to busy doing homework. I wish I didn't have such a busy life so that so many things wouldn't be in the way of school. However, looking back I really don't think I would change much...okay I would change a few things but not a lot. I would really like to not be working and just focus my time on school while the kids are in school. I could take a couple of extra classes and get the classes done and the majority of all the school work done while they are in school. Then I would only have to spend one or two evenings on school work and I could spend more time with them. I could also finish school a LOT faster. Right now I should be graduate college at the same time my daughter graduates high school...not a fun idea when you think of it like that. But that is what happens when you can only take one to two classes per semester and none in the summer. Unfortunately, life throws us curves so I am not unlike many other college students in trying to balance it all. I'm not complaining really, although it feels like it, I'm just simply stating that work is in my way.