Radvent 2010 - Day Eight

Day 8: Creating

Yesterday in the mail, I got a box from Amazon. Inside the box was the new book by Amy Sedaris - Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People. Okay, if you're familiar with Amy Sedaris, you'll know that it's just a big joke. The book is full of crazy crafts and ideas that are all meant to give you a chuckle. I absolutely love it. I'll read this one cover-to-cover just like I did her other book: I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence.

Choose an object to symbolize your creativity and put it in a place you can see it every day.

Everyday when I get to work, I have three different notebooks with me. One of these is my creative note-taking notebook where I can jot down just any old thought that comes into my head. Usually, the notes are things I want to make, or need to do. Right now, I've got it out so I can go over all the Christmas gifts we're buying, or I'm making. It's a big list.

Sometimes it stays in my bag - on extremely busy days - but most days, it's out on my desk where I can see it. Just having it in my line of sight helps me trigger ideas that I need to be thinking about somewhere in the back of my mind. That way, later, when I actually need to work on it, my thoughts are a little more clear.

Radvent 2010 - Day Seven

Day Seven: Playing

I think I've got this one down. Between the video games, the board games, the card games and the shelves and shelves of RPG books, I think Matt and I have gaming COVERED.

Buy something interesting and inexpensive from the end-cap in the toy section. Get one for you and one to share.
Glittery Play-Doh! Hot pink playing cards! A tiny fishing game! Gyroscopes! Balsa wood airplanes!
Schedule 30 minutes to play.

One of the things we're looking forward to about having kids in the house is the ability to share our love of gaming pasttimes with kids. WE LOVE GAMES - reading, writing, playing: you name it, as long as it's gaming related.

Radvent 2010 - Day Six

Day Six: Adventure

I've been on a ton of adventures this year. For the first time ever, I went to Boston and met up with friends. I attended PAX East and recorded a podcast with friends.

Sometime early in the year, we were in St. Louis to visit family, and I got to visit the St. Louis Zoo one afternoon.

In August I went to GenCon with my husband and some of our friends. We'd been before, but I went into it with a much different attitude this year, and had a more relaxed time than I have in the past. While in Indianapolis I went with my friends to the Indy Zoo, which was a great time.

In September, Matt and I went to PAX Prime in Seattle. Met up with some more great friends, played some fun games, and stood in long lines. One night, we just chilled on a rooftop and watched commuter jets fly in with friends. Good times.

For Matt's birthday, we spent our Halloween afternoon at the Topeka, KS zoo - which we'd never been to.

If you haven't been able to tell - I <3 Zoos. I'd only ever been to one major Zoo (and one park/zoo) before this year. I turn into a five year old when I'm at the zoo - I get a little ADD (I want to see everything) and I talk to the animals (yes, I know they can't hear/understand me). So, in that sense I've been on some good adventures. I also got to meet some great friends this year.

Radvent 2010 - Day Five

Day Five: Playlist

(Backdated because I missed the weekend prompts due to teaching classes.)

Dude. I got this. I was planning on putting together a 2010 Playlist in January (and it will be epic. But for now, I'll give you a taste of what's going to be on there.

Write down the soundtrack of your year so far. Play it for someone who loves you.

1) Winter Song - Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson
This song is absolutely beautiful and conveys a sort of longing that I don't even understand how they put it in there. It's very surprising that I get this attached to a Christmas/Holiday/Seasonal type song. But for serious, you have to give it a listen.

2) Make it Rain - Anouk
To continue the sort of awesome female singer idea. I put this on a Fanmix I did earlier this year, and it's one of those songs that just sort of sticks with you (or it has for me).

3) Not Strong Enough - Apocalyptica
And now for the metal portion of our playlist. But it's metal with strings and well worth the listen, even if you're not a metal fan. Good stuff here.

4) Hurricane - 30 Seconds to Mars (feat. Kanye West)
Last one for now. A little Rock with some Kanye to close things out. This is another one I used for a fanmix this year, but absolutely fell in love with.

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I'll have more when I finish this year's playlist (in January). I'll try and remember to update this space then. :)

Radvent 2010 - Day Three

Day 3: A Letter

Today is about writing.

Write a letter of love to yourself to read in one year.

Dude. Calm down. Chill out. Take 2 freaking minutes out of your day to breathe, to shut your mind down and just enjoy it. And by god, if you're thinking about a brand new project to work on, stop it right now. Write it down and think about it later - like a lot later.

You always try to do too much you know. I mean, it's okay, it's why I love you, but sometimes you overdo it. I want you to just think about everything you've accomplished in the last year and be happy with it.

I hope that you've accomplished your goals in the past year, but even if you haven't, don't take it hard. You don't need to stress about things you can't change now. Okay, take that break...I'll be here when you're finished.

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Done? Good.

Now, whatever projects you're in the middle of, or about to start. Go for it. I know you can do it, you're awesome. You've got it in you to do whatever you want to, no matter how good or bad you're feeling.

It's almost Christmas, so if you haven't already done so, buy yourself something nice. Even if you're low on funds, take a dollar or two and treat yourself to something you want, something frivolous, something fun.

<3
Me

Radvent 2010 - Day Two

Day Two: Organizing

So, today is supposed to be about Organizing. Finding things in our lives or homes that need organization and just finding a small amount of time to organize them.

Focus on one drawer, table, or surface today and spend 15 minutes making it pretty! (And take a pretty picture afterward to motivate yourself!)

Unfortunately, I'm at work today - and my desk is always clear at work (I hate a messy work desk) and I have a class to teach tonight, so my time to organize at home is limited. Plus, I did just go through this past weekend and organize the biggest pile of things needing to be organized - my giant list of games needing a home of some sort.

Second on my list of things to organize is the rest of the paperwork for Foster Care. So in an interest to do something organizational, I'm putting together this list of what we still need to get together, and how it needs to get done.

- Paper with Dimension for the Bedroom, and the window in the bedroom
- Copies of Matt's Drivers License and Insurance, Copy of my Drivers License and Insurance
- Pet Vaccination Records for Sekhi & Sebastian (the Cats), Piper & Jazz (the Dogs)
- Emergency Contact List still needs a hospital phone number (I think?)
- 3 Paystubs to prove Matt's employment
- Should double check that we turned in Matt's health & TB test results
- Written Discipline Policy
- Marriage License (it's around somewhere...)
- Sample Menu (NEW from worker 12/2)
- Vehicle Mechanical Check (NEW from worker 12/2)

Then there's the classes that still remain:
- CPR & First Aid training (someplace that will give us a physical paper certificate when we finish training)
- 2 classes through the website - Matt's done one of these, I haven't done either. Should only take an hour or so over the weekend

Then, I need to try and get an actual appointment set up with the newest (4th) worker so we can have a due date for all this paperwork and training (probably won't get the CPR/FA training in time) done before we meet.

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That's a good starting point. I'll try and keep coming back here to check things off as I get them done/turned in.

Starting with: Email old&new workers to verify the couple of things I'm not sure if we still need to turn in or not; and set up new appointment time.

Radvent 2010 - Day One

(I had a whole post written up and the internet ate it. I'm positive I won't remember everything I wanted to say.)

Megan (AKA Princess Lasertron) has started what she's calling Radvent 2010, a project to post everyday about specific topics leading up to Christmas. She'll have prompts at her blog every day with topics to write about. I think it's a pretty cool idea, and what's more than that, today's topic gave me the bit of motivation I needed to start up something I've been thinking about for a while now.



Today's prompt is: Remembering (PDF Link)

What were you doing five years ago today? As the holiday season began? Where were you? Who were you with? What did you want? What did you have?

December 2005 was a big month for me as far as life milestones go. As of December 1st, 2005, Matt and I had been married exactly one month. We were about to embark on a crazy month of visiting family and friends for the holiday, just like most people. But, it was our first Christmas as a married couple and we wanted to visit everyone.

My mother was still living in Warsaw, MO at the time, so that meant we had to make the 2.5 hour trip to her house, which would take an entire day. Then we'd have to split the other time between my Dad's, Matt's parents and family (2 different days), my grandparents and extended family, and our friends. Matt's friend Jim was dating my friend Anjie and we spent an evening with them and their families (who are like our own extended family). J&A got married the following year, but I don't remember if they were engaged by this time yet, though I want to say they weren't.

In December I also applied and interviewed for a NewCo (as we called it) job. It was a position that would start in January with Sprint and then carry on to the spin-off company in May. I thought the interview went well, but I wouldn't know until after the new year that I got the job with the company. That job is the one that took me from contracted employee, to full-time official employee, and it's the same job I have today, though the name of the company has changed a few times.

Overall 2005 was pretty big year for me, what with planning a wedding and getting married and everything. I think Matt and I spent a few months trying to figure the whole thing out for ourselves -- like how different (if at all) things would be for us after getting married. People expect that things have to change dramatically from dating to living together to being engaged to getting married. I think we had to adjust to the fact that nothing really needed to change for us (aside from my name and some bank accounts). The way we act and live together wasn't really changed because we got married. I don't think we had any arguments or anything like that during those first few months, I think it was just a tentative period of feeling each other out (so to speak) to see what would change.

And then here were are five years later, no kids of our own and a year into the process of becoming Foster Parents. Which brings me to the other thing I wanted to talk about, the thing that the idea of Radvent motivated me to kickstart. I'd been thinking about starting a blog to talk about our Foster Care experiences (even though we're only in the paperwork stages) and I think now is the time. My goal for 2011 is to finish the process and actually be able to say we're Foster Parents - meaning having kids in the house by the end of next year. I think we can do it, but it'll take some motivation own our part which we've seriously been lacking (for several reasons).

So, I set up The Foster Years and this'll be my first post. I'll be adding some more background and stuff throughout the month to detail our experiences building up to this point, as well as keeping up with Radvent posts. Even if it's just for me, I think it'll be worth trying to keep track of the experience