Fill in the Blank Friday

Fill in the Blank Friday, along with the image below is brought to you by the little things we do.

1. The love of my life is Jesus and Zach .

2. Falling in love is _wonderful, and even more wonderful is when it keeps happening every day .

3. Marriage is _hard work, but rewarding. If it weren't hard work, it would be shallow and easily shattered .

4. The longest relationship I've ever had was _with Zach! 3 and a half years and counting .

5. The key to a good relationship is _forgiveness, the ability to admit when you're wrong, and the desire for the best for the other .

6. I feel loved when I'm affirmed. (my first love language is ferrets, but Words of Affirmation is a close second).

7. My favorite quote about love is "love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, nor bends with the remover to remove. Oh no. It is an ever fix-ed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken" (Sonnet 116) .

Sorry guys, I know that this is my only post for the week. It's been a rough one. I'll let you in on it once the dust has settled. Thanks very much for your loyalty, support, and encouragement. You make writing this blog worth it, and I have every intention of getting back in the saddle.

Fill in the Blank Friday

Fill in the Blank Friday, along with the image below is brought to you by the little things we do.

1. I started my blog because I can't remember! I started it years ago. When I started writing more frequently, it was to have a record of things, to share my life with friends and family, and to have a creative outlet after graduating college.

2. One thing I love seeing on other blogs _is how other people enjoy their lives, what they do to be happy.

3. Something I love about blogging _is the responses I get from what I write, and the rewarding sense of putting my feelings to words.

4. A favorite blog post of mine is probably _Zach's Proposal. I love telling our love story.

5. Something my friends in real life know about me that I've never before mentioned on my blog is _...I have no idea actually. Friends? What do you think? Let me know in comments :).

6. My new favorite blogs to read are _I love The Frugal Girl. I'm also a huge fan of Hither and Thither .

7. Some things I tend to avoid doing on my blog are _being unhelpful.

little known fact about me

You might not know this about me, but I love Alfred Hitchcock.

image source

When I was in high school, I wanted to be a film historian when I grew up. This has become a rather comical fact because, having married a film major, my husband can run circles around me with his film history knowledge.

Watching Rear Window and then learning the techniques Hitchcock used to film it made me realize what filmmaking is all about, and gave me a strong thirst to learn more. After that, I couldn't watch his movies fast enough.

I even taught a film history class in my local homeschooling co-op. It was more of a film appreciation class with a focus on old movies, but it was a ton of fun. Especially the one time we met at my house and I used the entirety of the course registration fees on pizza for everyone. (shhhh don't tell)

I have an impressive collection of Hitchcock's films, and have seen most of his body of work. But I think I overdosed on them? Maybe? I'm due for a refresher. I'm really excited to watch my collection of "Hitchcocks" (as I call them) with Zach. I want to share this old friendship with him. (Kind of like how I want him to fall in love with the North Atlantic, just like I am.)

I also have an impressive selection of film history books I own, but haven't read. Starting with my hefty Hitchcock biography. I think that'll be next on my list. Umm...once my parents visit maybe? It's back home.



In case you're wondering what I'm reading now that I've finished The Hunger Games, I'm reading Ender's Game. Zach loves this book, and has been recommending it to me for a while. I'm reading his well-worn copy. As he was reading The Hunger Games for himself, he told me that if I like this series, I'd like Ender's Game too. I'm loving it.

no one gets what I do...literally

So...I know I just posted my big "I'm breaking up with my blog!" post. But I have a funny little anecdote for you.

My job is impossible for people to understand.

I have a basic generic answer for when people ask me what I do. My company is a small division of a larger national (and more well known) association. So I say I work for that association, and most of the time I get away with it.

It's when I get asked "and what do you do there?" that I run into trouble. The next step is "I'm an (insert job title here) for a branch of (insert big company name) that focuses on (a specific area of healthcare.)"

What people don't get is that I work for a member group. So people who work in this specific area of healthcare are members of my association. What people think I do is work in that specific area of healthcare. But I don't. I support membership, education, and marketing FOR and directed TO the people who work in healthcare.

It would be a lot easier if I worked for a member group targeted toward surgeons or something similarly visible like that. But what makes it even harder for people to "get" is that my member group is for people behind the scenes. (example, another member group on my floor is for healthcare engineers, people who design hospitals and such. see? behind the scenes. occupations most people don't think about often.)


When I told someone at the Super Bowl party I was at last night that I work for the big association that my group is part of, she asked if they were hiring nurses. I knew that no matter how hard I tried, she wouldn't understand my job. It's hard to be in a conversation when you kind of give up trying but they keep asking you questions but you just keep trying to change the subject.

change of pace

Blogging isn't really fitting into my life these days.

When you spend eight hours a day looking at a computer, you don't want to get on a computer when you get home. You want to sit on the couch and spend time with your husband. Sure, you might watch a lot of TV, but you're doing it together.

I've been blogging out of obligation lately, rather than using it as an outlet for creative expression, which is how it started.

So I'm not shutting down my blog, but I'm not constraining myself to a schedule. I'm not going to obligate myself to follow in the footsteps of bloggers who are more popular or successful than I am. And I want to let you, my very few readers, know that I'm making this change. It means so much to me that you read my words, and I want to thank you for that. I don't want you to get worried, I know several of my faithful readers are family members. (Hi Moms!)

The guilt over not blogging "enough" has been holding me back from getting other things done. I want to let that guilt go. So I'll blog when I feel inspired to blog, and let that be my only parameter.

Fill in the Blank Friday

Fill in the Blank Friday, along with the image below is brought to you by the little things we do.

1. If money wasn't an issue, the first thing I'd cross of my life list is getting myself a pair of Frye 12R Harness boots. I mean...paying off our student debt. That's the right answer. :P Then I'd take Zach to Ireland and go to Sweden too. Both heritages in one trip .

2. Mayonnaise on french fries is something I like that other people think is weird.

3. If my life were a movie right now, the title would be ...I'm drawing a blank on this one. Sorry folks .

4. Three things I am looking forward to this month are Valentines Day , getting our banking situation reorganized and purging my closet and hopefully getting some new clothes at a clothing swap I'm going to next weekend .

5. My favorite song to sing in the shower is Summertime or Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas .

6. If I found out that the production of Sam Adams' Black Lager was ending this month, I'd go out and buy as much as I could tomorrow. (recent discovery, current favorite beer that's not on tap)

7. One thing I'll never grow tired of is saying goodnight to Zach .

Weekend Productivity

I said that I'd be focused on knitting last weekend, and I was! I haven't finished either of my current projects yet, but I made a lot of progress on the scarf.

I also totally reorganized our bathroom/toiletries. As in, took everything out of their baskets (we store our bathroom stuff in baskets) and sorted them (face wash, body wash, hand lotion, body lotion a.k.a. that super thick lotion you use on your feet) and then put them all away. We got a bunch of small bath supplies for Christmas, and hadn't really taken stock of what we have. Let me tell you, it's going to be a very long time before we have to buy any bath/shower supplies again. And first aid stuff too. We have two fully stocked first aid kits. I think we have enough band-aids to handle raising five children without running out. I'm not kidding.

This weekend we'll be traveling up to Wisconsin to visit Zach's family, and then coming back to Chicago in time to go to a Super Bowl party. It sounds like a perfect weekend to dedicate to more knitting, right?

Another goal for the coming week or so is to start reorganizing our bank accounts. We have separate checking and savings accounts, so we want to condense those. We also want to put our savings into a higher-yield account like ING's savings accounts. We've got the first step of saving down, actually having money set aside. The next step is finding the best place to put that savings, and while our current situation isn't harming things (charging us lots of fees), it isn't improving things either. Know what I mean? I'll keep you updated on that too.