10 [exciting] Things about this week...

1. You know that study abroad program I've been talking about for, like, ever now??!? WELLLllllll... I had an interview (impromptu, might I add) with the sponsor of the trip and he wants me to go!!! So that means I'm accepted into the program and I get to go to Italy for Maymester!!! This also means other great things for my school stuff. I only have to take ONE class this summer and I'll be done! Which means I'll technically be able to start working as much as I'd like and that'll be fabulous! I'm going to need it to pay off the cost of this trip, but it's so worth it! I got the good news yesterday and I couldn't be more excited.

2. Carrie comes to see me in exactly 27 days. OMG, it's finally here!! I cannot WAIT!! We're going to go see Confessions of a Shopaholic (I'm so glad she's waiting to see it with me - you have NO idea how big of a deal it is for her to actually wait to see a movie!)

3. Michael invited me to go HOME with him to meet his parents, etc. (yes, HOME is a different city and state and timezone...) This just happened today. Ummmm I kinda freaked out for a second but I'm really excited! We had actually planned this for the Christmas holidays but it didn't end up working out like that. So, he wanted to go for a short weekend in two weeks for his son's birthday and wants me to come. That's $180 round trip for a plane ticket. I feel like it's worth it, though. :) This is a huge step in our relationship, by the way...

4. I called my credit card company (the one I have with the whopping almost 6 grand in fun money on it) and had my interest rate lowered from 18.9 (who the fuck has an 18.9% interest rate with my credit score?!) to 3.99.... fabulous!! I don't know why I never thought to ask for a lower interest rate before. I just thought that's what you had to pay. I've been hearing from other people that they've called and now have been able to pay off their card - instead, I feel like I've been paying them a shit ton of interest these past few years. :)

5. Blaire is moving back to the city THIS WEEKEND!! I'm SO excited for her! She'll be closer and I'll be able to see her more often :)

6. Rae moved out a week ago and I'm still looking for a roommate. I've posted an ad on craigslist but haven't found anything just yet... gotta keep looking!

7. My Nutrition class was supposed to have a test on Tuesday. My teacher sent an email (that I didn't get) and said we were going to have it next week instead... this means I get more time to prepare for it. MUCH needed, thank you! I absolutely LOVE this class. I give Carrie the good scoop every Tuesday once I get out.

8. I start my nanny job on Monday. I'll be making about 300 bucks a week for about 20 hours (FABULOUS!!) and then I have Thursday mornings and Saturday nights at the restaurant. That should make up the difference for all of my bills. :) I can't wait to start this nanny job - I'm going to have so much homework time - I'll actually be caught up with all of my classes.

9. I finally have all of my W2's and can go get my taxes done. I'm a bit timid about it because of the work I did for one of my marketing projects over the summer. I made about 3,000 with them and didn't pay taxes on it at the time - I hope it's not a huge whammy this time!

10. I went to my small group thing (DEFINITELY going to love it... not what I thought initially) on Tuesday night. The girls are really nice and I think I'm going to connect with at least some of them. I volunteered to host the next one on Tuesday at my house, so hopefully that will go well! :)

Wow. It's been such a great week... I love it! I can't wait for all of this fun stuff to happen! I've got to go ahead and get my passport (yep, almost 25 and don't have a passport yet...) so I'll have it for my trip. That's another hundred bucks right there!!

I hope you all have had a lovely week and have a fabulous weekend! :)

10 Things about this wonderful day...

The sun's not really shinin', but today's a fabulous day.




1. I got plenty of sleep last night. I even stayed up a little later, but slept in until about 1030. Hooray!
2. Rae and I received a check in the mail from our bitch-ass ex landlord. It was for our full deposit, refunded. I was absolutely shocked! I'm so glad we don't have to take her to court now!
3. I met with the family that I start nannying for as soon as I can get my schedule down to friday nights at the restaurant. They're going to pay me $15 an hour for 20 or so hours a week and it's a super easy job. Their 7 month old sleeps every other hour. :)
4. I talked to Michael and we're going to dinner tonight after I get out of class. I'm really excited to get to spend some time with him. This weekend was incredibly rough for us. He's doing better now.
5. Rae is moving out at the end of this week, so I've got to find a roommate asap. She's still going to pay for her share until I do, but I definitely don't want her to have to pay more than she should.
6. My church's group thing is this Saturday night and I'm STOKED. This couldn't come at a better time for me.


Ok, so 6 things about today should be enough. I have class in a few, so just wanted to write a little. :) Oh, happy day!

mumbo jumbo

It's *ahem* 3am and I'm just now able to write and catch you all up. I feel like life is flying by a mile a minute. So... short, choppy bullet points will have to do :) I feel like that's the best way to organize all this random information anyway!

- First of all, things with Michael are still quite crazy at the moment. I broke things off with him because he wasn't treating me the way I wanted to be treated (he wasn't treating me badly, just not the way I wanted). That only lasted a few weeks before we started talking again and he told me he didn't want me out of his life. Since then, it's been kinda blah. It's not been the way it was before, nor the way I think it should be - but we're both going through a TON of shit in our lives, so I guess it's to be expected. At least we still talk daily and spend a lot of time together - I think that's all that matters. Well, that, and we love each other. I guess that's the glue sometimes...

- This new year's whizzed by me so quickly. I didn't really make any resolutions other than to start being on time. I hate being late to places, but I can't ever seem to be on time. So far, I've pulled it off quite nicely - I've definitely cut it close a few times though!!

- Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Waiting tables is the worst fun you could ever possibly imagine. I don't wish this nightmare upon my worst enemy (ok, well, maybe). But I work at a very upscale mexican restaurant... where the food is quite expensive, which means you make a lot in tips at the end of the night. It's extremely hard work. The people are exhausting. My coworkers are absolutely insane and I despise one of my managers. I'm glad the only thing she could find to do with her life is to be a manager at a restaurant such as this. She'll amount to great things with the attitude she's got. Sense the sarcasm. Please. Anyway, so this job is sucking the life outta me... which brings me to....

- I'm looking for a new job. I interview on Tuesday for a nanny position for a 7 month old who apparently sleeps all day. My brother's girlfriend has been her nanny for a little while now and tells me this. Only, she's found the day job she wants and can no longer do it. The hours are nice, the pay is even nicer... and it'll get me out of the waiting tables business. Lord, I never thought i'd have to stoop so low...

- 140 lb. update. Well. I made it. Not on my own terms, but I made it nonetheless. Working at the restaurant - running around all the time - has made me reach my goal weight - but if I quit and go nanny, I'm afraid, I'll put those 5 lbs right back on. There's no way I can keep up with the 5 - 9 hours of running around to keep it off. Absolutely no way :) Oh well, At least I hit it!

- The school I go to has about driven me insane. This semester has been worse than previous semesters (I don't even feel like looking up all the crap I've blogged about to reference it. Just know that it's been a bunch of bullshit!). So, they wouldn't let me in certain classes - but I need them to graduate. Finally, once they let me in, I was registering during late registration. THEN, two days after my schedule was finally in, they dropped all the classes because my loan (all billion dollars I had just sitting there waiting to be used) didn't get credited to the account yet (literally, TWO flippin days later!). SO, I had to go up there and wait for 3 hours while they figured it all out........ and pay all kinds of fees and fines just to be in school this semester. If I weren't so close to graduating, I'd have given up and gone to another school! Fuckers!

- All the while this is going on, I moved from the house I lived in (biatch of a landlord - THAT is a whole 'nother story in itself) into an apartment that is the bomb-diggity. My roommate and I moved here together, though just a week or so ago, her bf and her decided to buy a house. So they did. And she's moving out in a few weeks. So sad to see her go.... and that means I've gotta find another roommate. This sucks because my luck with good roommates is ridiculously nonexistent! I did stumble on a gold mine, though. This guy was moving out of an apartment across the way and asked if we wanted some of his furniture. Two black leather sofas, a dining room table and four chairs, and two bar stools later.... I had some new furniture. Funny how he was getting rid of the things I could use! I paid him 150 bucks and considered myself extremely lucky! (that shizzle is in damn good condition, too!) God was definitely looking out for me!

- Speaking of the lovely, himself. I plan on going next weekend to start a group with my church. We have this thing four times a year where everyone (a few thousand people) gets together to join groups for a period of weeks. You go to bible studies, etc. with people your age and in your area. I think it's going to be AWESOME!

- I've seriously missed this freakin thing. I miss writing down my thoughts and misadventures. I dunno if you all still read at all - cause I get the page hits but not any comments - so I hope you're still reading and you haven't forgotten about me! All these bullets would normally be individual posts as they happen... so thanks for sticking in there for the long haul! I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Years and I can't wait to catch up on your blogs!

Ok - so there you have it. A much needed update from moi! (PS - deadline to submit everything for the study abroad in France program is Feb 16... cross your fingers for me!!)

Do you think I'm Cuuuuuute?

After picking the kids up from daycare and bringing them home for a piano lesson for one of them... I had the 3 year old to entertain by myself. We made some dinner together and we went outside to ride bikes, all that fun stuff.

We're sitting at the table waiting on the 7 year old to finish her dinner... the 3 year old picks up a play phone from the play room and this is what I hear:

"brrrring-aling-aling (yes, she actually made that sound)

Hi Brantley! How are you?!

Yes, this phone is fake. hah hah ha [one of those 'posh' chuckles]

oh really??? That's awesome!

Are you my boyfriend?

Do you think I'm cuuute?"


Hahaha I was CRACKING up! She talked to her neighbor, her boyfriend, little red riding hood, and Hannah Montana.

Oh... and the Jonas Brothers, too. Haha!

Negotiations

It's settled. I move (again) on the 31st of May into the house I nanny at (clever name for them to come later as all clever-ness has left my brain for the day). I start school June 9th... and all of this is going to be a great big huge challenge.

After rough negotiations, it has been decided that I will pick up the kids from school/daycare once a week and sit one night a weekend, two weekends a month for a total of 8 babysitting days a month. Considering the $60 to $80 they pay me a night for babysitting before... I'd say I'm pretty much making my rent in babysitting a month, but that's alright. I don't have to deal with roommates and I might get to keep my cat there, too!

It's coming at me all too fast. Yikes!!!

Taking the STO- out of Storage

Today, I picked the 7 yr. old up from school. As we were passing by buildings they'd recently torn down in our upscale "neighborhood" [I use the term loosly, because it's more of a metropolis than a neighborhood], she mentioned they tore down the "rage" building.

Hmm. The rage building?

I asked her what exactly she meant and she proceeded to tell me, "Well, it used to be the storage building but the S and the T and the O fell off, so it's the Rage building."

I laughed so hard I had to cover my mouth. It was histerical.. until I heard...

"Ms. America, you laugh like Santa Claus when you cover your mouth like that."

Oh. Right. Mental note: never do that on a first date. On second thought, ever again.

Crazy Tuesday

Ah, Monday was crazy... but Tuesday has been a bit crazier.

Meetings all day, a really late lunch, picking up kids from daycare and babysitting them until 11pm, etc etc.

Some funny stories for ya though. I think I laughed for about 20 minutes.

I went to pick up the 7 year old from school... and coming down the stairs extremely carefully, she's carrying a small round container telling me that she's not able to hurry because there are holes in the top of her container and "there's something live in there." I start to get the full scoup even before we've exited the building.

Apparently there are way too many ladybugs dying and she and her friends have decided to make flyers to stop killing the ladybugs. They're going to post these flyers around each of their neighborhoods to let people know that ladybugs are nice and shouldn't be killed.

Hrm. oooookay....

On the way home (a traffic-filled 30 minute drive for 7 or 8 miles) she falls asleep holding her precious ladybug (officially named 'lady') in her lap. Upon arriving home, the interior lights in the car come on and she awakens, takes a few seconds to realize what's going on, and then says,

"Woah. She's not killed."

I about died laughing. It was THE most hilarious thing I'd heard in a while. She kept asking me what I was laughing about and why I was laughing at her. I tried to explain (in some 7-year-old way) that I was laughing at the situation, not her. haha.

And the 3 year old... the letter of the day was "J". How lovely.

Flash forward a few hours... I open the door to enter my house to a smokey smell. Later, I find out my roommate almost burned the house down because he forgot about some macaroni while he was on the phone with his mother. The only thing that reminded him was the fire alarm going off. This makes me nervous.

:)

Let's make a deal!

"OK Miss America, here's the deal," the 3 year old says as I sit her in front of her dinner, "You go make macaroni and cheese for me. Bring it to me. And I will sit here and eat it. That's a good deal."

Barely containing my laughter, I respond, "How about this deal... You eat your dinner and if you're still hungry after dinner, you can have macaroni and cheese. Now that's a really good deal?"

I've been a babysitter for the best of them. Been with their family since before she was a concept and her 7 year old sister was her age. I know their temperment quite well by now. This interaction was one of about twelve that it took to complete the meal comprised of hot dogs on a plain bagel (they thought that was really cool) and some fruit.

This 'deal' was one of many that made up the twelve interactions:

-"I've gotta fix my towel" (which requires getting down from the seat to fix the cover on her chair so I have to lift her up again)

-"OH! Look at that tea set" (as she's walking towards it... which requires hoisting back up again.)

-"I want some more of my birthday cake! My birthday is tomorrow! My mom and dad told me!!" (correction... it was last Saturday; however 'Birthday girl' seems to last a little while around here)Apparently there's "no more room" for real food, but tons of room for birthday cake.

-"I need to play with my new game!" (the lifting back onto the chair continues.)

Dinner lasted almost an hour.

They'll say and do any cute little thing to move away from the dinner table. Everything is so important right then, they'll even try to make a deal!

[PS - She really does call me Miss America ;)]