Hi folks. Serious lack of posting here lately, I know. And it's not going to change for quite a while I'm afraid. It's a major struggle right now to maintain some semblance of a work/life balance, and at the moment work is definitely winning. We're talking working overtime almost every day, being on call 24/7, working several weekends, not being able to fall asleep because my brain won't shut off, waking up in the middle of the night to remember something that needs to go on my to-do list ... you get the idea.
Anyhoo, I haven't even really had time to do anything interesting worth blogging about - hence the lack of posts :) And please forgive me for not commenting on all your sites. I have been reading, I promise - it's often the highlight of my day!
All of this to say, I'll be taking a blogging break, probably until December when I hope to reach the end of this nightmarish work-laden tunnel. But I will be back! And I'll still be dropping by to visit all of you.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
I know it's been a while. Life has exploded since September started. I don't even really have time to be writing this, but I'm going to anyway! Here's a quick run down of what's been going on:
- We had a great time visiting with a couple friends from university who came up to attend the U2 concert last week. It's fun being a tourist in your own city!
- Work has gone absolutely crazy. My boss is steps away from having a breakdown, and the rest of us aren't too far behind. There's just too much to do and not enough time to get it all done. But we have to get it done anyway.
- I now have to carry a blackberry around with me wherever I go, so that I'm always available should a work-related emergency come up. Boy am I thrilled about that.
- My brother is getting married in less than 2 weeks. Last week he sent me an email asking me to play the piano for the wedding. We still haven't picked the music :)
- TC has started back at school, and will be teaching a Shakespeare course for the winter semester. Which means he's now Professor TC. At least for 3 months.
- It's been so busy that I haven't gotten groceries in over 3 weeks, other than picking up a necessity here and there.
- I'm almost done the mystery crochet project that I've been working on, which means I'll hopefully be able to post pictures of it soon.
- Our home church has started up for the year, so we've been attending various elders' meetings, training sessions, and kick-off events. It's good to get back into things though.
Right now the pace of our life has picked up to the point where I'm starting to feel like all I can do is dig in and hang on for dear life. The good thing is that I know this will pass, so I'm not as stressed out as I would have been a few years ago. In the meantime, I'm going to keep trying to laugh at life and enjoy the ride.
A little something to help with the laughter:
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Limbo
I haven't been posting too much lately, for no particular reason other than that not too much has been going on. It feels like we're in a kind of limbo, waiting for the effects of the actions that we've taken over the past couple of months.
We're now finished the home study process in our ongoing adoption saga, and have been approved as adoptive parents (yay!). We've decided that our first choice is to adopt through our local children's aid society, and I contacted them a few weeks ago to get things rolling only to run into a bit of a brick wall. Apparently, before we can be considered as adoptive parents, we have to attend an information session, which isn't too big a deal as it's a one-night thing. Then, because we've already done our training and home study, we can meet with the social worker right away and start being matched with potential children. Except that the next information session isn't until October 19th. So we wait.
In the meantime, because we did our home study and training through a private adoption agency, we also have the option of submitting a profile for that agency to use. What that means is that we need to put together a little book with pictures and a brief rundown of our life story, explaining why we'd be good parents, and give it to the agency. Then, when a birth mother comes to the agency, they provide her with the profiles of couples that meet whatever criteria she's set out, and she chooses which couple(s) she wants to meet with, and eventually which couple she wants to give her baby to. So we're currently sorting through our pictures, and waiting for some to come in from our folks (turns out we don't have to many pictures of ourselves, since we're always the ones behind the camera!), and trying to decide which ones should go in the profile.
Until we get all of that done, we wait. And surprisingly enough, I'm okay with that. I'm learning a lot about patience in this whole process, and trusting that just because things aren't necessarily proceeding the way I'd like them to doesn't mean that they aren't proceeding in the best way possible.
We're now finished the home study process in our ongoing adoption saga, and have been approved as adoptive parents (yay!). We've decided that our first choice is to adopt through our local children's aid society, and I contacted them a few weeks ago to get things rolling only to run into a bit of a brick wall. Apparently, before we can be considered as adoptive parents, we have to attend an information session, which isn't too big a deal as it's a one-night thing. Then, because we've already done our training and home study, we can meet with the social worker right away and start being matched with potential children. Except that the next information session isn't until October 19th. So we wait.
In the meantime, because we did our home study and training through a private adoption agency, we also have the option of submitting a profile for that agency to use. What that means is that we need to put together a little book with pictures and a brief rundown of our life story, explaining why we'd be good parents, and give it to the agency. Then, when a birth mother comes to the agency, they provide her with the profiles of couples that meet whatever criteria she's set out, and she chooses which couple(s) she wants to meet with, and eventually which couple she wants to give her baby to. So we're currently sorting through our pictures, and waiting for some to come in from our folks (turns out we don't have to many pictures of ourselves, since we're always the ones behind the camera!), and trying to decide which ones should go in the profile.
Until we get all of that done, we wait. And surprisingly enough, I'm okay with that. I'm learning a lot about patience in this whole process, and trusting that just because things aren't necessarily proceeding the way I'd like them to doesn't mean that they aren't proceeding in the best way possible.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Living in 40+ degree heat - a balanced perspective :)
~~~
I normally hate drinking water, but I'm so thirsty that I'm getting my 8 glasses a day.
I'm thirsty because I'm sweating buckets - yay for being stinky!
~~~
We have no a/c in our apartment, so sleep has been next to impossible.
I actually look forward to going in to work in the morning, because it's air conditioned.
~~~
It's too hot to eat anything that isn't essentially a liquid.
I've lost weight.
~~~
I'm not getting any housework done, because any prolonged movement puts you at risk of heat stroke.
I've discovered several new TV shows that I enjoy, and have caught up on my reading.
~~~
I haven't had to use moisturizer in a week, because the air is so humid it does the job for me.
I haven't had a good hair day in over a week.
~~~
I normally hate drinking water, but I'm so thirsty that I'm getting my 8 glasses a day.
I'm thirsty because I'm sweating buckets - yay for being stinky!
~~~
We have no a/c in our apartment, so sleep has been next to impossible.
I actually look forward to going in to work in the morning, because it's air conditioned.
~~~
It's too hot to eat anything that isn't essentially a liquid.
I've lost weight.
~~~
I'm not getting any housework done, because any prolonged movement puts you at risk of heat stroke.
I've discovered several new TV shows that I enjoy, and have caught up on my reading.
~~~
I haven't had to use moisturizer in a week, because the air is so humid it does the job for me.
I haven't had a good hair day in over a week.
~~~
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Obviously speaking...
I've been working in the corporate world for 3+ years now, yet the propensity for business-type people to state the obvious never ceases to amaze me. Yesterday I was in a workshop designed to help train performance managers, and one of the 'experts' delivered this line with all seriousness, as if were a pearl of great wisdom:
"To be a leader you have to get people to follow you."
Does that seem like a no-brainer to anyone else?
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Thoughts on Walmart
People often ask us why we've chosen not to shop at Walmart, and I've always found it difficult to articulate the reason. Not that we don't have one, it's just that I'm not an economist so my vocabulary in this area is rather limited. I came across an article the other day that summed it up pretty well, though (you can read it here). It basically comes down to 2 things:
1) Walmarts do initially create more jobs, but they're not "good" jobs, and in the long run they undermine the local economy.
2) Those low, low prices come at the expense of fair wages at almost every step in the production and distribution process.
In light of these two facts, TC and I have chosen to support local small businesses whenever we can. Things may cost a little more, but that's only because we're closer to paying the true cost for the item. As a bonus, we're a lot less likely to buy things that we don't really need. We've been doing pretty well, too. Since January, we've only purchased one thing at Walmart, and that was because it was the only place we could find it.
Please understand that I'm not condemning those who shop at Walmart. The fact that we don't is the result of a decision that TC and I made, based on our understanding of the world and the role we have in it. Not everyone would agree, and that's okay. But I am curious to know what you all think about Walmart. Is it good? Bad? Ugly? Are you completely okay with shopping there? Do you avoid it altogether? Or are you somewhere in between - shopping there but feeling slightly guilty about it?
1) Walmarts do initially create more jobs, but they're not "good" jobs, and in the long run they undermine the local economy.
2) Those low, low prices come at the expense of fair wages at almost every step in the production and distribution process.
In light of these two facts, TC and I have chosen to support local small businesses whenever we can. Things may cost a little more, but that's only because we're closer to paying the true cost for the item. As a bonus, we're a lot less likely to buy things that we don't really need. We've been doing pretty well, too. Since January, we've only purchased one thing at Walmart, and that was because it was the only place we could find it.
Please understand that I'm not condemning those who shop at Walmart. The fact that we don't is the result of a decision that TC and I made, based on our understanding of the world and the role we have in it. Not everyone would agree, and that's okay. But I am curious to know what you all think about Walmart. Is it good? Bad? Ugly? Are you completely okay with shopping there? Do you avoid it altogether? Or are you somewhere in between - shopping there but feeling slightly guilty about it?
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