Another 2 days worth of blogging. :)

Well, I am not feeling very well today and am home sick, so I thought this might be a great time to catch up on my daily blog. I think it's good that I'm sticking with it and I'm going to ignore the "daily" part. :)

DAY 17: Someone I would like to switch lives with for just one day.

I'm really not sure I want to trade places with anyone. I have a really great life. Granted, I would like to have all the money I wanted so that I could do all the things I want to do, but I'm not sure I would actually TRADE with anyone...not even for a day.

But...for the purpose of thinking outside the box, I guess I would trade with Rick Steves.
I would love to travel the world. Especially if someone else was paying the bill! He gets to go EVERYWHERE!! He is willing to try anything once and learns so much about everywhere he goes! That's who I would trade places with, but if I'm going to trade, maybe more than a day would be good. :)

DAY 18: My future plans, dreams, and goals

• I want my house done. I really really really want my house done. I want it to be finished. I want a finished basement, an enclosed porch, a restored craftsman style, and a BEAUTIFUL and functional backyard. Granted, we are chipping away at it. We are making progress, but progress is taking longer than I want it to. I want to be able to live in it the way I want it once I get it that way. :)
• I want to be able to leave a legacy to my kid. I want to be able to invest my money wisely and spend my money frugally in order to be able to support my child through college and be able to leave him with an inheritance.
• I would be interested in furthering my education.
• I want to travel the world with my family. I want them to see the Duomo and the Swiss Alps. I have many goals and dreams in life. Most of which, I am currently working on or towards.

Day 16: A picture of me

Well, lucky me! :) I just had head shots done. :) Just in time! Here is my Day 16 blog challenge. Thank you, Perfect Moments Photography by Amberlee Harder!! :) She does weddings/senior photos/family photos/you name it.... :)

Day 15 of my blog challenge: My biggest success in life....

I have been very lucky AND blessed to have a lot of success in my life. At least, I think of them as successes. I have a great house, a great job, a wonderful kid, and I live in a quaint town that loves me. I graduated from high school and college and have everything I wanted from life (so far).

If I had to nail down my BIGGEST success in my life so far, I think it would be my marriage. 11.5 years ago, I married my high school sweetheart. We had been dating off and on at that point (mostly on) for about 5 years. He asked me to dance on December 3rd at the high school dance and it was love from then on.

The world was pretty much out to get us from the start. His family was full of devout Pentecostals and mine were as LDS as you could find. Everyone warned us not to even date. We enjoyed each others company, made each other laugh and had a good deal in common. There is a lot of story behind the process of what followed, but suffice it to say that neither one of us are currently either of those denominations. We were bound and determined to be together no matter what as we knew that we were two halves of one whole. We got married and finished college. We had WONDERFUL adventures and a lot of learning to do together. I had to learn not to be linked so very tightly to my other family and Sam had to learn how to become his own person instead of what everyone always wanted him to be. We traveled together and spent time getting to know one another. We were married for 5 years before deciding to have our little guy.

My grandparents have been happily married 61.5 years. My other set of grandparents were married exactly 50 years (to the day) before my grandpa passed. Otherwise, divorce can be found all over my family. My mother married 2 times before finding her 3rd and final husband and friend. I didn't have a lot of great examples on what marriage should be. I saw a lot of fighting, but not much making up. I didn't see a lot of communication, but I knew it would be important in a relationship.

In our marriage, I feel we have both worked very hard (sometimes harder than others) to make sure to communicate, understand each other, and work together for the same goal. It hasn't always been easy. We both have our faults and our "pet peeves", but we love each other.

I feel like my biggest success in life is my marriage. Without my husband, I wouldn't have any of the successes mentioned above. None of them. He has truly been my rock and my shoulder and without him, I don't know where I would be, but it wouldn't be where I am today. He is my true love.

Day 14 of my challenge...(and 12 and 13 too)...

So, things got away from me the last couple of days and I haven't been able to be at my computer. What does that mean? I will tell you. It's been about 48+ hours or so since I have been able to sit at a computer for any length of time. When I logged onto our personal email this morning, there were 11 messages waiting for me. Now, that may not seem like a lot, but it's a lot for us. After reading, responding and processing through those, I logged into Kindermusik and I had 13. I read, responded, and processed those and logged onto my EOU email where I had 12. Mostly mass emails, so I could get through that list pretty quickly. I checked my facebook where I had 3 messages and 16 comments on things. There were well over 300+ new posts on my newsfeed, so I read through some of those and purposely visited a few people's walls to check in on what was up with them and now, here I am. :) Not to mention that I went to bed early last night (8:30) and woke up at 6 and when I turned my phone on, I had 4 messages! 4!! Between 9pm and 6am. I say all this because many days my email inboxes have NOTHING in them and my phone never rings. I was just surprised. :)

Now for my blog challenge. I am behind, so I will be putting them all in this blog.
DAY 12: 3 THINGS PEOPLE ARE SHOCKED TO LEARN ABOUT ME
I have lived many different lives. The people who are part of my life now are most surprised to learn about my other lives and the people from my other life are often surprised to learn about my current one. I will go with what people I am current associated with are shocked to learn about me. Narrowing to 3 will be a little tricky. :)

1. I grew up LDS for most of my life. I won Book of Mormon scripture chases, was a Young Women's leader, went to girl's camp every year, and worked on an LDS ranch called "Ensign Ranch" for about 6 summers of my life. Some of my best memories of my past, I might add.
   
2. I am the oldest of 9 children. Most people know this about me, but even the ones who know this were surprised when they learned it and every new person I tell is surprised. I don't know why it's surprising. I'm bossy and controlling. Duh. Where did they think I got that? :) Also, I think people have a fascination with big families.
3. I failed my first term of my freshman year of college. I graduated EOU with ??? 3.8? Pretty awesome grades. Now I teach there. I can relate to my struggling freshman in a way no one else can. I had a 1.6 GPA at the end of my first term at CWU and was put on academic probation. I don't fail many things, so that's always a little surprising for people to learn.
   

DAY 13: MY 5 FAVORITE BOOKS AND WHY
This is always a hard question to answer. I love to read when I have the time to do so and I read many different kinds of books. I do have a top 5 list, but it could change at any moment. I'll give you my current top 5.

1. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. The first time I read this book, I was enlightened about our ethnocentrism and the idea of religious conversion in other cultures. I love her writing style in this book. She takes on each character devoting the chapter and the style of that person. The first-person narrative of EVERY character. Well written. Good story. Something to ponder. Everything that a good book should have. :)





2. The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. Granted, I don't fully agree with EVERY principle in his plan, but we worked his plan by creating a zero-balance budget, living within our means, and using Dave's "debt snowball" plan, we were able to pay off $23,000 in debt in about 16 months. We are now working on baby step 3 which is having a fully-funded emergency fund with 3-6 months of expenses in it. I am finally sleeping at night and not worried about where I finances go as I tell every dollar what to do. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!


3. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. I recently read this with my book club. I loved the story and grew a strong connection with the characters. I think what I loved the most was the writing. It was almost hypnotic. Some of the reviewers of this book and other that have read it said it was slow. This is one case were I thought slow was good. Just like enjoying every bite of a good piece of chocolate cheesecake. I loved every word and the way the story was told by the author. It sucked me in. No, it's not a page-turner, but I would say it's quite a work of art. :)





4. Life of Pi by Yann Martel. This was another book club book. I enjoyed reading this book very much. The story was incredible and very well told. I HATED THE ENDING!! I think my love/hate relationship with the way this author treated his story is why it makes my top 5. I have read it over and over again just so that I could have a different perspective. I appreciate the story for what it is and enjoy the picture it paints. I did not like that he threw a can of paint on his canvas at the end. :( :) Mixed feelings, but highly recommended reading. :)




5. The Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon. I think this book made my top 5 because if it's uniqueness. I seem to be drawn to that. It's unique in a similar way to my number 1. It's written from the perspective of 15 year old autistic boy. Even the pages are numbered with prime numbers. It sucked me in so much that I often times had to check the back to look at the author and read his bio and I often found myself wondering if this was his biography. He seemed to understand the inner workings of the autistic mind so well, it was VERY interested writing. The story and/or plot of the book was not the point and not why I loved it. The writing style and character choices were fantastic.

Also on the top of my reading list are several other authors (regardless of which book they wrote): Anita Shreve, Bill Bryson, David Sedaris, Jan Karon, Nevada Barr, Jodi Picoult, and Mitch Albom.

DAY 14: PICTURE OF ME AND MY FAMILY
Family has always been a little difficult for me to decipher. I was so close to extended family growing up that it was hard for me to separate from them to create my own family. I will be including several pictures of family. The first is the most recent???? (YEARS old) one that we took our our little family.....Then there is my group of siblings and their families:

Top: This Christmas at mom's
Left: Chris and Danielle in Florida
Right: Nick and Amanda in N. Carolina








Then there is extended family....the Forney's from Forney Reunion version 20.10:
Then of course, there are all those who are family and not pictured here. All my in-laws, all my aunts, uncles, and cousins on my mom's side, and the friends who might as well BE family.

A bucket list...

Until this blog challenge, I had never put much thought into a bucket list. I know that I want to travel with my family. I want to take long RV trips across the country in the summer time and take Ethan to Disneyland, but I'm not sure those are bucket list type items.

So, for now, I will compile a list of things that I have done thus far in my life that I never thought I would have had the opportunity to do or the experience of doing and see if that sparks my though process into things I want to do:

1. Graduated from college and went on to graduate school.
2. Communicated through sign language with Chimpanzee's
3. Interpreted sign language
4. traveled to many different countries.
5. Been a vocal coach for musical theatre
6. Crewed for a hot air balloon (payment in rides!)
7. Certified in Kindermusik and started a successful business.
8. Raced in triathlons
9. Been the acting president of a board of directors
10. Pay of $23,000 worth of consumer debt in about 16 months.

and now that I'm thinking about things I have done, I have come up with a few that I would like to do, not only before I die, but sooner rather than later:

1. See the Aurora Borealis (and Alaska)
2. Explore the US National Parks
3. Get a small cute tattoo
4. Write a memoir
5. Collect stories from my grandparents and parents.
6. Meet my goal weight
7. Find financial peace and stability by being wise with money
8. Make a difference in the life of just one person.
9. Be an early riser
10. Sail the seas with my love.

There. i did it. :) There's 10 anyway....aren't bucket lists supposed to be like 100 things to do before you die or something? Well...here's 10 and I'm hoping to do them in the next 1 to 5 years...well...except the last one. That's our goal for retirement. :) Hopefully I won't die before then. And...when these 10 are done...I'll find another 10 and have another 10 that I will have done that weren't even on this bucket list. :) Fun. :)

The songs of my life....

So, I have a lot of trouble with today's blog challenge. I'm supposed to talk about songs I listen to for the times in life when I'm sad, happy, hyped, discouraged...whatever. Part of the problem is that I really don't listen to a lot of music. :) Well...that's not true...I listen to more music than the average Joe, but it's all for work. When I am home or away from work somewhere else, I don't usually choose to listen to music. And when I do want to hear something, it's usually something specific. I don't care for background music. I find the concept of "ignorance is bliss" is the best thing to describe me and my love/hate relationship with music.

My massage therapist is my best friend. She found me a CD to play during my massage that has no melodies. It's just tones and chimes in different orders with no patterns and no vocals. In my life, there is not really any such thing as background music. I hear the muzak at the grocery store and identify the songs that play in the elevator.

So, when I am in the mood to listen to music, I am usually very particular. Sometimes I go through phases of music. Like when my brother Ross introduced me to Maroon Five. Listened to them every day for weeks. :) I love Jack Johnson, Colbie Caillat, and the like. Most of all, I think I listen to musical theatre and opera. Again...specific. :)

Here's one of my favorites right now:


This one is pretty great to run to:


Here is one of my all-time favorites to watch:


I also run to this one:


I like the story behind this Dixie Chicks song and if you haven't watched their documentary, you should. :)

I have been made fun of many times for my playlist on my mp3 player. I have Taylor Swift, Dashboard Confessional, AFI, Kristin Chenoweth, Andrea Bocelli, Jack Johnson, The Beatles, Aerosmith, Dixie Chicks, Renee Fleming, Reba McEntire, and a TON of musical theatre.

I think the most important part of what I listen to is that I always have somethings specific in mind and I don't listen passively. I've always had a hard time answering this question.

What am I proud of?

So, yesterday's blog challenge was something I've felt proud of in the past few days. I guess the easy answer is that I've been proud of my students. I feel proud of them often. I am proud of those I have taught that have worked hard and had their hard work pay off in their lives and their jobs. I'm proud of Erin Wunz, my current EOU senior. Not only is she making great progress on her voice and her senior recital, but she is doing it while playing "Christine" in the Phantom of the Opera and being active in her church, an active participant in choir, having a job, and operating a voice studio. I am not sure that she knows how proud of her I am, but I feel very happy when I see how far she will go and how much she wants it.

I am proud of my husband. He has been working overtime almost every day for the past few weeks. He's out the door by 6 and home around 5:30 to be a WONDERFUL father to our kiddo. He plays games with him, wrestles with him, and entertains his silly "I made you say 'what'" games.

In general, I am proud of those around me. Proud of the students who work hard. Proud of the wonderful parents of La Grande in my Kindermusik classes and the wonderful work they do to raise their children. I am proud of my son who makes good choices most of the time and works hard to be a great kid.