Together on Tuesday...Letter to Mark

Happy Tuesday, all! 

So this week's topic is one that for me (and I am guessing it probably also is for some of the other ToT ladies as well) has been quite a challenge.  So when I sat down to write this week's blog tonight...I used Facebook as my first diversion...then after that, I went over to www.someecards.com for a little cheeky, off-beat humor...I managed to burn off quite a bit of procrastination time there...but now, it is just past 9pm, and I must put my mind to writing this week's ToT entry!

Our topic this week is to write a letter to our husband...doesn't have to be a mushy love letter or anything like that - just ANY kind of letter, whatever we want to say. 

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Dear Mark,
This seems really strange to me not only to be writing you out a letter to start with, but also to be writing out a letter to you that will be published for everyone to read.  Ever since this topic was added to our lineup several weeks ago, I have been mulling over in my mind what type of letter to write to you.  Then, on Friday, after the court hearing over those dogs that terrorized our neighborhood for so long, I was thinking about how thankful I was of how supportive you were through that whole long battle - and that it was as important to you as it was to me.  Then it hit me, there are SO MANY things that you have done, or still do, for me that I am SURE that I have never taken the time to say 'Thank You' for - its not that I haven't always been thankful for everything that you do, its just that I have taken for granted that you know how much I appreciate them. 

Going back through our documentation of Watson's injuries the night before the hearing, I was reminded of the lengths that you went to in order to get Watson and I through that whole ordeal.  I don't know HOW, but somehow I had forgotten that after he came home from his surgery that you spent every night for at least a week laying on the floor with him so that he wasn't terrified during the night when he couldn't sleep.  And the morning that he was attacked by those dogs how you were the one that kept your head together (while I was in complete panic and meltdown mode) so that we could get him to the Vet's office and into surgery - not to mention going back and helping them prep your own dog for surgery while Dr. B drove in from Louisville to see to him. 

Another time that came to mind was when I was completely defeated, and had pretty much given up, on trying to finding the right doctor to help with my specific health problems, and you got on the phone and called as many different doctors' offices as it took before you finally found the one you thought would be the best suited - but not only that...then you REFUSED to accept 'sorry, but we aren't accepting new patients' from them...because whatever you said to them certainly convinced them otherwise. 

You also always support whatever crazy idea I have or whatever sort of situation I manage to get myself into.  Like the time I wanted to invent saftey goggles for dogs - then later found out that someone else already had, LOL!  And I am sure by now, when your phone rings and it is me, that you are never surprised at how the converstation starts on the other end...whether it be the classic 'you are gonna kill me when you see the horrible thing I just did to my car' (remember...the smashed in bumper...or the damaged rim & flat tire...or the other time I scraped up the bumper...or the other flat tire...), or 'I need you to stop whatever you are doing right now in the middle of the day and come get me...someone needed me to come to the hospital with them, and now I need a ride back home'...or whatever other random thing the case may be - but I am sure by now, nothing surprises you anymore - and you always seem to be perfectly okay with that. 

I also appreciate that you let me be as crazy of a dog mom as I want to be to our boys.  You know that I am completely batshit crazy over the dogs, and you are perfectly okay with how much I adore them.  I am sure that you also sometimes get tired of the songs I make up for the dogs, and the endless supply of goofy nicknames that I have for them - but you always just go with the flow and before you probably even realize it, you also typically end up calling them whatever the most recent crazy thing I have come up with for them!

Another thing I love about you is your sense of humor.  No matter what we are going through, you are able to make me laugh and smile every single day.  Like me, you see the advantage of maintaining a sense of humor in most situations, so we are able to laugh our way through things that may otherwise be unnecessarily stressful.  I really do mean it when I have said that my best marriage advice is 'to always have a sense of humor' - as we know, life is hard, but it is a whole lot less hard when you are able to laugh about things. 

I feel like I could literally write for months about all of the wonderful things you do that I truly do appreciate...so, I hope that this very small sampling shows you how much I love and appreciate everything you do.  You are the BEST, and I hope that you know that even though I am sure I do not say 'thank you' often enough, that in my heart I truly am thankful to have you.  And as I often do tell you, but that I always want you to know is that...you are my most favorite person!

Love,
Me

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Okay, readers...so now that I have opened up and shared my letter with you...what type of letter, or what things would you say in an open letter to your spouse or significant other???  

Together on Tuesday - A Day in the Life of Me

Hello Everyone!  You caught me...again...writing my Together on Tuesday weekly post on Wednesday.  Well...the truth is, that we had a very busy weekend, Monday was my ONLY chance to get to yoga class this week, and by last night...my house was in complete shambles and getting it cleaned had to be priority numero uno...which, just happens to be a perfect segue into this week's topic...(which was of my choosing, by the way, because I thought it would be a great way for all the Together on Tuesday gals to get to know one another a little better and to give you - our faithful readers - a chance to get to know us better).

What is your typical 'day in the life' like?  Do you feel like you get most things accomplished that you need to in a given day?  Or do you go to bed pondering over the list of things that you didn't get to?  How do weekends differ from weekdays?  How do (or don't) you keep that balance between less fun things like chores, etc...and more fun things?

Monday - Friday
My weekdays pretty much revolve around work, and then whatever little I can fit in between work and sleep.  My day starts around 6:15am, when the alarm first goes off, then several snooze button cycles later, I begrudgingly throw myself out of bed.  My morning effort to get out the door is typical stuff.  Then I have my commute to downtown.  On a good traffic day it is okay, on a bad traffic day, I feel like I am going to die in my car of old age before I get to work.  Tuesday blogger Tish and I work together (in my first job with our company, I worked under her supervision). 

 (this is where fellow ToT blogger Tish and I spend our weekdays)

I am now a Reporting Analyst for the company, so I pretty much spend my days looking at spreadsheets, data system outputs, etc... I do a lot of number cruching and analytical type work. One of my main responsibilities is the reporting of Assets Under Management.  One of the rewarding things about my job is that I regularly get to see my hard work put to use.  Several of the reports that I generate monthly and quarterly are subsequently used in corporate press releases, shareholder reporting, and things like that.  I have also had the opportunity to see reports that I had produced be used in presentations by senior management.  So, while my job may not sound that exciting to some, I am always happy to see my work contribute to the 'big picture' so to speak.  In addition to the reporting, I also have various other responsibilites involving data system maintenance and account transitions. 

Weekday evenings go by way too fast, with not nearly enough time to get everything done.  In addition to my regular work day, our department has a rotation where we provide an hour of evening support to offices in other time zones - so about every third week or so, I leave work an hour earlier, come home and then log in remotely and provide data support until 6:30pm. 

Typically, by the time that dinner is made, eaten, and cleaned up after it seems like the evenings are nearly over (assuming we didn't decide to bypass all of that and free up some time for ourselves by meeting for dinner somewhere).  We also have to make time to play with the dogs and spend up their pent-up energy so they don't drive us crazy all night!  Dinner is an important time for us, because a lot of evenings, there is so much going on that it is the best opportunity for Mark and I to catch up and talk about our day, things we need to get done, and things like that.  Don't get me wrong, its not like we don't talk during the day or at home in the evenings, it just seems like a lot of times, there are a million other things going on in addition to us trying to discuss things.  For dinner, we try and eliminate as much of that as possible - for example, the dogs are NOT ALLOWED in the kitchen when we are eating dinner.  They know the rules, if we are at the table eating, they are not to cross the line from the living room into the kitchen.  This gives us some peace and quiet from them, but also reinforces the rule that they don't get people food...and not to even try for it.  Also, we typically do not take phone calls or read/respond to text messages or things like that during dinner...phones down!

There are still some things that I like to try and fit in whenever I can in the evenings after work...such as Yoga class.  I love going to Yoga and I am doing my best to make it happen at least once a week.  For me, Yoga is a great way to work out some of the stress that builds up AND it also really helps with my neck problems - which is GREAT!  If you are intersted in a Yoga class in Louisville, I really recommend PM Yoga.  It seems like going to Yoga on Monday works best for me, if I try and wait until the Thursday class, inevitably something will come up and derail my plan.  Then of course, I LOVE doing my Together on Tuesday blogs - it is fun and sometimes a nice challenge!  It is just a great workout for my mind - it has kind of become my 'yoga for the brain'.  In addition to gathering my thoughts for you guys, I have an opportunity each week to get to know the other ToT ladies a little better.  You see, most of them I have just met via e-mail, FB, and blog reading (except for Danielle and Tish, who I actually have known in person for some time now).  So each week is like a new piece of the puzzle of getting to know each of them.  Also, from time to time, I have to fit in going to the Chiropractor.  When my neck problems really flare up, I have to make time to go and get it worked out.  Appointments take almost an hour by the time I get the adjustment and then do the rotation through the physical therapy they do on me as well.  An hour doesn't seem like much, but when I am having really bad neck problems, I will have to go 2-3 times per week for several consecutive weeks.  However, I have been doing well lately, so about once a month has been keeping me in good shape in additon to Yoga which is really helping as well.  As I have mentioned before, we don't watch much TV at all, however, there are a couple shows a week that I like to try and catch.  Mostly I try and remember to watch NCIS and Modern Family.  Toward the end of this past TV season, I also got hooked on Revenge so I am also looking forward to that coming back in the fall as well.  Because of my work schedule, I do not watch any daytime TV at all.  I could not even tell you what is on during the day, other than Ellen's talk show.  I have caught that a couple times on days off - but that's about all I have seen of daytime TV since college. 

Weekends

Weekends are great...but you already knew that I'm sure!  It seems like we usually still have alot going on during the weekends, but we have more of an opportunity to fit in quality time together and more fun things than during the week.  I like to sit around on Saturday mornings drinking coffee for a couple hours, but it doesn't always work out that I am able to do so.  Occasionally, we also like to have a big weekend breakfast - sometimes we make it, but a lot of times we go out for it.  Now that it is summer, we are doing our best to get the boat out on the lake as much as possible.  It is one of the few times where we can really just 'be away from it all' without leaving town.  But, being that it is summer, we also have to try and get the yardwork in before the excruciating heat sets in for the day.  Most of the time we usually also have some kind of DIY home improvement project(s) going on.  We also use weekends to spend time with friends and family and do other fun things as well.  We also try and get caught up on things that we didn't get done around the house during the week.  At some point in the weekend, Eli (little dog) DEMANDS that he and I take a nap on the couch together.  On Sundays, we have Church in the morning, and then after church, we typically go out to lunch.  By Sunday evenings, we usually like to settle down from the weekend and relax at the house.  

Fitting it All In...

Like most of you, I don't even come close to fitting everything into a day.  There is never enough time in the day.  Something ALWAYS doesn't get done, and sometimes this can be stressful and overwhelming.  Honestly, I just try and juggle things well enough to make sure I get to the things that would keep me up at night...and that could vary depending on what is going on.  Most of the time, however, that would be certain things at work that cannot be left undone, spending time with Mark and the dogs, family, and friends.  But, then of course, up creeps the housework that I've neglected for a couple days, yardwork, laundry, and the other 'not so fun' things that still have to get done - so then we juggle those things in and so goes the never-ending cycle of trying to keep the right balance of having everything in the air and catching what I need to at the right time. 

(this is how Mark and I feel most days!)

I want to spend as much quality time with Mark and the dogs as I can squeeze in.  I hate going to bed feeling like I didn't spend enough time with them - but sometimes the day is over before I realize it.  But I do my best at that regardless.  To me, those are the things that are most important - Mark, my boys, our family and friends.  Yes, of course the housework and chores are important.  But, ulitmately, a few dirty dishes left in the sink or doggy nose prints left on the windows aren't going to kill me (trust me on that, because I would have been dead LONG ago if that were the case)...and they will CERTAINLY still be there tomorrow...in fact, there will probably even be a few more! 

Together on Tuesday - Play that FUNKY Music!!!

Happy Tuesday, Everyone!  I hope you are all having a great week...quite frankly, it IS only Tuesday, but it has already seemed like a very LONG week for me so far!  Shoo...I am already ready for the weekend to roll back around again! 

This week, we are writing about music.  In particular, the music that we love and/or has impacted our lives in some way.  What music do we listen to?  What do we like about that music...does it make me happy, sad, inspired, etc...???

Well, this is going to be a tough topic for me to round up all my thoughts and stay organized and on-point...not because I don't love music...it is actually just the opposite of that, I love such a large variety of music that I fear I may go on long rambling tangents trying to fit in the full scope of the large variety of music that I like.  So, I am thinking that the best way for me is to approach this week's blog entry is to pick some of my very favorites to talk about.  So, this will not be even close to an exhaustive list of music that I love, more of just a few 'honorable mentions'. 

First, I am going to start with one of my all time favorites, Bob Marley.  I love his music.  He is one of those artists that I can just start an album at the beginning, go about my business and enjoy every song through the very end.  Mark and I have sort of dubbed his song 'Three Little Birds' as 'our song'...mostly because I am a constant, constant worrier and Mark will sometimes play this song for me because of the lines, "don't worry about a thing, cause every little thing is gonna be alright."  Having been such talented musician coupled with his death at such a young age (36), fans are left with this sort of 'what might have been' void in place of the music that never was because his life and career were cut short.  You can read more interesting details of his life and career at Bob Marley's IMDB page.

Of course, this wouldn't be a blog about my favorite music if I didn't mention Jimmy Buffet.  Again, I can put on one of his albums and enjoy absolutely every single song on the album from start to finish.  I had the opportunity to go to my very first Jimmy Buffet concert back in March, and it was awesome!  Enjoyed every single minute of it!  As an added bonus, fellow ToT blogger Danielle and her husband Chris were able to come down for that weekend and go to the concert with us and our friend Greg!  We all had a blast at the concert...even once we found our correct seats at the Yum! Center which weren't nearly as good as the ones we thought were our seats...LOL!  

Tom Petty - ANOTHER one that I can just put an album on and enjoy all the way through (anyone starting to see a trend here??).  I am also going to say say that Tom Petty's Superbowl half-time show from 2008 was PHENOMENAL.  I challenge any of you to show me a SB halftime show since then that was even halfway decent compared to Petty's 2008 perfomance.  Watch it here on YouTube. 

An artist that has been around for a few years that I am just now getting into is Adele.  I have no idea why I didn't realize what a great artist she is before recently, but holy crap...wow...that gal has a voice!  And on top of that great voice, she has some fabulous songs as well.  I only have her '21' album right now, and I really enjoy it!  Adele and I spend at least one morning a week belting out duets together from the 21 album on my way to work!  One moring we were rocking it out so loudly in the car that I missed a call from my boss on my way in...oops!  I am going to have to go back and get her previous album as well. 

I also love Jack Johnson's music.  Jack Johnson is probably my all time favorite perfomance on Austin City Limits (2005).  I wanted to include a YouTube link from his Austin City Limits perfomance, but I cannot find it on YouTube...I thought everything was on YouTube??...par for my week, I suppose!  For my 30th birthday, Mark actually surprised me with tickets to a Jack Johnson concert in Indianapolis.  I literally had no idea where we were going until we were in Indianapolis.  Even when we left the house, he would not tell me where we were going, or what we were doing.  Once we reached the northside of Indy, we stopped at a restraurant and then all he would say was that someone was meeting us there...but would not tell me who...so I anxiously waited having NO idea who was meeting us there.  I was beyond thrilled when Danielle and Chris walked in and told me that we were going to the Jack Johnson concert and that our other good friends Erik and Janette were coming as well!  It was a great concert, but even more than that, I got to spend it with great friends as well! 

Another artist that I really like is Chris Tomlin.  He is a Christian music artist.  We listen and sing his music at our church sometimes and I have come to really enjoy all of his music.  There are a lot of really talented Christian music artists out there right now, but I would have to pick Chris Tomlin as my favorite.  For me, he combines his musical talent with messages of faith - and I think they are messages that he truly believes in - not just singing about for his musical career.  He really brings a lot of pure talent to the Christian music scene.  A couple of years ago, we got to go see his Christmas concert in Evansville, IN and we really enjoyed every aspect of it.  Not only Chris' performance, but we got to hear Louie Giglio speak his Christmas message called 'The Twelve Words of Christmas'.  It was a very powerful message.  Louie's message combined with Chris' music really made for a wonderful evening of celebrating the Christmas Season that year and the Christmas CD from that concert is the first Christmas CD I listen to each year. 

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I feel like I have covered SO FEW of my favorite musicians, and that by circumstance of time I am leaving so many unmentioned!  

Well, now that I have rambled on and on...for those of you still awake at the end of this...you tell me..what is YOUR favorite music?  What about this music makes it special or important to you?

Also - DON'T FORGET to click on those links up and to the right that go to other ToT bloggers' sites and find out what music they love and how and why it has impacted their lives! 



Together on Tuesday: The Pursuit of Happiness

Happy Tuesday, Everyone! 

Today's Topic: According to the Happiness Project, some people theorize we are happiest doing what we loved when we were kids, say age 10. So…what were you doing at age 10 that you LOVED? Are you doing that now? If so, how, and how does it impact your daily happiness? If not, how can you bring some of that back into your life?

When I first read this topic, I was very interested in the idea...but then I saw it...age 10, of all years of my life, it had to ask me to go back to age 10.  Of all years to think about writing about what made me happy as a youngster, age 10 is certainly the most complicated year for me.  Age 10 was the year that my parents separated, so when I think back to that particular year, all of my memories revolve around this major turning point in my family's history.  We went from being a family of four under one roof to being three under one roof (my sister and I lived with our Mom) and then one, my dad, living seperately under another one.  The mathematical ramifications of maintaining two separate homes meant that we went from living in a house with a large yard to an apartment with a very small yard.  It also meant that we would be moving across town from our friend Kristal, the girl that we grew up across the street from - who I had played with literally every single day since around age five.  So, needless to say, I have really had to think long and hard just to really even remember anything from that year besides the split - let alone find something from that year that made me happy enough to carry into adulthood!  But after thinking about the topic many, many times, I figure there has to be something that made me happy that year...I just have to remember it. 

It seems that by age 10 I probably already had decided that I wanted to be a teacher.  I am sure at that age I had not yet decided on the specifics like what grade, subject, etc...  But I am SURE that I already wanted to be a teacher by that age. 

Now...for the analysis...time to break down this dreamy notion of life that my 10 year-old self imagined.  Being a teacher.  Did I do this?  Well...yes AND no.  I did it...but I don't do it now.  I did get my undergraduate degree in teaching.  By college, I had decided to go for Secondary English Education.  I wanted to be a Middle or High School English teacher.  I did every last bit of coursework, (barely) survived Student Teaching, graduated from IU with my Bachelor's of Science in Education, and got my Indiana State Teacher's License.  I was a December graduate from IU, so that left me with the second half of a school year to...do...something before they really started hiring for the following school year, so I worked as a substitute teacher for the rest of that school year, and eventually was brought in to finish the school year for a Middle School English teacher that was on maternity leave.  And....CUT!  That is sort of where my teaching career ended.  During my Student Teaching (and then further confirmed when I was teaching out in the schools that Spring), I was coming to the realization that this career choice, perhaps, was...wait for it...NOT FOR ME!!  OMG, WHY DID I THINK I WANTED TO SPEND ALL DAY IN A ROOM FULL OF MIDDLE OR HIGH SCHOOLERS...WAS I SMOKING CRACK WHEN I MADE THIS DECISION???!!!  EEEK!!! 

So, after coming to this realization, I started looking for jobs in the business world.  I was VERY fortunate to end up with a company that not only provided me with the PERFECT job, training, and work experience to make the career transition from teaching to the business world - but, they also gave me the opportunity to get my MBA and they would pay for it.  This was a HUGE turning point for me career-wise.  Once I completed my MBA program, I was no longer just a girl with a teaching degree who decided to do something else, I was a girl with a Master's Degree in Business!  This has opened many, many doors for me.  This sort of provided a springboard so-to-speak for me to get to the job I have today.  As I was going through the MBA program, my Manager at the time and I decided for me to do some budget analysis type work.  I loved it.  I absolutely loved it.  So, I sort of became the 'keeper of the department budgets'.  Then after we moved to Louisville, I started working at my current company in the Portfolio Accounting department (under the supervision of fellow Together on Tuesday blogger Tish!).  Again, this was another amazing opportunity that provided me with valuable work experience.  From there, I went on to become a Compliance Officer within the company, which - was probably not the best fit of a job for me, but again, provided me with more new skills and training, and more opportunities.  In that job, I found that I really liked doing analytical type work.  I had several quarterly projects where I would take massive amounts of data, run different types of analysis, and then churn out very useful data that we could actually use for risk analysis.  As it tuns out, I also had a knack for the analytical data crunching.  Eventually, my current job as a Reporting Analyst - again with the same company - came up and it seems to be an absolute perfect fit for me.  I get am able to put to use a really great combination of the analytical data crunching, as well as the reporting of finacial data.  So, it has really provided a unique opportunity for me to have a job that rolls up and allows me to work on many of the different aspects that I found that I really loved in other jobs that I've had. 

So now that I have taken you on this really long, seemingly off-topic, tangent about all my past jobs you are probably wondering...is there anything  from that age even remotely relevant to her life now??...because it all seems to have gone polar opposite from where it started.  I am going to say YES...what??  You are reading it right now!  Remember, what type of teacher I thought I wanted to be?  RIGHT!  You had probably forgotten about that detail in all my subsequent ramblings!  I decided to teach English becaused I was good at it.  I enjoyed reading, and I LOVED writing.  See???  You didn't think I was going to get there did you??!!  Joining the Together on Tuesday blog group has given me a wonderful opportunity to get back to doing something that I have always enjoyed.  Plus, with the added bonus of having a group of wonderful ladies to get to write with, share ideas, and get to one another know better.  

And, after putting all of this down, and then circling back around to age 10 being the year that my parents seperated, while I would never say that it ever made me happy - I can say in looking back, it did provide the space needed for us to not completely fall apart as a family.  While my parents did separate that year, they never divorced.  Yes, this may seem strange to most of you.  But, the fact is, that even though they decided they could no longer live together, my parents never 'hated' or even, really disliked each other.  They just simply found themselves in a situation where they needed time and space apart from one another and in living apart, it gave them that time and space they needed to repair some of the damage and eventually come back around to being one another's best friend again.  Some time after the separation, they even eventually had standing plans to always have dinner on Friday evenings together - and yes, it was really strange and sometimes difficult trying to explain to my friends - some of whose parents were divorced - that no...my parents do not live together...but no they are not divorced...and no...they don't plan to divorce...oh, and by the way, they have Friday night dinner plans every week.  But, that was my family, and that was what worked for us and living apart was somehow what actually held us together.