Al Gore's Greatest Invention

I love the internet... I know it's a strange post, but it's true.  There is a wealth of information, lovely pictures, inspiration, and all at the mere tips of your fingers...

Anyway, wasted some good quality time this morning and discovered these two sites I wanted to share...

www.pinterest.com - This one is hard to explain.  It's pretty much like a virtual bulletin board with an assortment of random stuff.  Some are themed, some are not.  Plus, you can look at what other people pin...  Cool stuff...

http://iammommy.typepad.com/i_am_baker/ - An amazing baker blog.  Plus, she has loads of amazing pictures and tutorials.  So many things I want to try...

That's how I spent my morning...  Recovering my sore muscles (I voiced Musk-kles in my head) from staining the deck via the internet, mostly the two sites above, a little clothes folding from massive amounts of piled up clean laundry, and an amazing cup of coffee...

Leaving you with this photo of our stained deck courtesy of 24 hours of serious staining... Yes, I'm a staining master now... ;)

Our Stained Deck

And now on to the joys of medical billing...

Keeping up with the Joneses

Random Educational Tidbit:  Ever wonder where the phrase "Keeping up with the Joneses" came from?  Apparently it all started with a 1913 comic strip from the NY Times... (at least according to wiki)

Anywhoo, I've never really been one to worry about keeping up with the joneses.  Admittedly I have some nice stuff and I do continue to buy nice stuff, but mostly because I like the nice stuff.  I'm the type to oooh and ahhh over the softness of leather, the brighty cheer colors of a fabric, and the lovely details of a polka dot or some other print.  But I must add that in an effort to be a true tight wad and less materialistic, I've started to be more creative with my love of nice stuff.  For instance, I've been shopping at goodwill more often and am going to learn to sew.  After all, you might be surprised to know that a lot of my favorite outfits usually cost less in total than say... my purse, lol.

But... I have found one area of life that I never realized I worry about what the darn Joneses are doing... a career.  I've always foolishly had the thought that life will be great once all this schooling is over and I can begin my "real" life.  Then came the hiccup of medical school, but I don't want to dwell too much on that again...  The time is quickly approaching that my old class is getting ready to graduate from medical school and I'm starting (or started until this revelation) to see them as the Joneses.  I then begin to panic and start down that old familiar path of... well, life will be great once I get this nursing education stuff going...

But... And here's the PSA you've been waiting for...  Life is great now.  I have much to be grateful for.  My "real" life is the present and what I make of it.  Now, I've got to get off my butt and make something of what's left of the day.  (Although, in my defense, I'd already powered washed the half of the deck we didn't get to last night, had breakfast and did a little vacuuming this morning before I sat down and started wasting time/procrastinating on the web.)

A Not So Normal Day in the Life of Me

So I have what I call "sick" spells.  I get lightheaded, sometimes dizzy, nauseous,  my face gets flushed and I just over all feel yuck.  I've had my thyroid checkout and ruled out MS so other than the vasovagal response stuff, no one really knows what's wrong with me.  As a result, I get to endure various random testing, the current one being a 24hr EEG.

Me attempting to look "normal."  I put a hat on and a shirt on top of my wires.

So, (and yes I started two paragraphs with the word "so" despite knowing that it's against the rules) I thought I'd share the joyous experience with you lovely folks.  I have ridiculous amounts of goo in my hair.  I'm attached to what feels like eight million wires (reminds me of the movie Avatar).  I have a panic button.  It's actually a button to push in case I have an "episode."  I have to carry the little machine attached to all those wires.  And my head has a stocking-ish thing on it wrapped in a bandage.  Fun times.  See the fun times pictured here. Haha.

Me with my bandaged stocking head

Me showing off my machine/purse....

I know... you're jealous of all the fun times had by me.  Yup, this is what my life is currently like...

Focus on the Good and Avoid Perfection

www.reverendfun.com

I wanted to write a post today and struggled to come up with what exactly it is I wanted to share with the world...

Until... After rereading the Love & Marriage chapter of The Happiness Project it dawned on me.  Throughout the books, she lists her own commandments, which are basically things to keep achieving toward throughout the project, very much like your own tailored version of the ten commandments.

Anyway, I came upon my first one...  Focus on the Good and Avoid Perfection.  I believe this is an important one during this month in my happiness project and maybe that's why it came to me.

For example, one of the big muffin's household jobs is to take out the trash.  (Not because this is a "man's" job, but because I despise dealing with the trash.)  Applying my first commandment (randomly, that previous phrase makes me think about having to apply certain rules to prove a proof in HS geometry), I need to remember that while the trash isn't always emptied when it's full (which I refuse to do), this version of perfection isn't important.  Perhaps I should NOT focus on the full trash and remember all the cool little things big muffin does for me... like... buying orange creamsicle lollipops when he's out by himself because he remembers me spending time in the checkout line searching like small child for orange creamsicle because it's soo listed on the sign... lol...  Hopefully you get the point of all that gibberish.

Besides, perfection tends to plague me.  Yes, I was one of those students that aimed to make as many A's as possible, not to please my parents, but because I love the gold stars.  :)  And yes, I'm that person who looks at a perfectly good cupcake and thinks, ehh, it really could use a lot more work...  If I weren't so thrifty (or as big muffin calls me, a cheap @$$), I'd have a huge pile of reject cupcakes, cookies, etc.

Anyhow, that's my first commandment and something to focus on for the month and for for-ev-er.... (Suppose to sound that one out like on the movie Sandlot...)

Now on to some other random things I wanted to share:

- My good friend and Godsister Rochelle has decided to blog too!  Yay! She's the most levelheaded, wise and honestly good person I know so I'm sure she'll have lots of good stuff to share.
Simply Grateful - http://lucerochelle.blogspot.com

- I had a request from my SIL for an email whenever I post.  I added a spot so that she, and anyone else, can receive an email every time I update/post on the site.

- Finally one more random bit, my parents are getting Iphones today!  I find this both very exciting and a little hilarious.  I know they'll both love it, but it's just a little funny to me to picture either one of them with such a gadgety gadget.  Going over there later to help get it all set up later.  Wish me luck! lol

What I thought most while typing this:  I can't help but wonder if I make sense to people...
Something silly I saw yesterday while out and about that excited me:  I saw a 11 year old girl (I'm guessing at her age) with a Kindle!  I was so excited for her and felt kinda stupid about being excited. lol  I would have loved having a Kindle when I was younger and I definitely love it now.
Crazy thing we did this week:  Seriously considered buy a $33,000 house to renovate.