Surviving or Thriving

I asked a coworker, casually, how she was doing at lunch the other day. She said she was surviving, so I said, "Just surviving?" to which she responded, "Nope, I'm thriving!"

I love the positive attitude in that, and I often wish I could harness the positivity.

Some days, though, there's a problem with my head. I can't seem to be the person I hope to be -- and often, even if I can get there from an outsider's view, I can't get there from my own perspective.

Yep, I guess it's another cryptic blog day. In a nutshell, though, I'm sure I'm thriving - but some days, I feel like I'm barely surviving.

Love: Positive attitudes.
Do: Work on more holiday stuff?
Hope: My "surviving" moves on to "thriving" very soon!

Kiddo's Routine

Kiddo does well with routine, and he'll be happy to return to his "daycare" routine tomorrow! He'll play with his little buddy who just turned one, and he'll have his picture taken by his teacher, as usual. These are a few pictures that capture how kiddo spends his day!

Meanwhile, it's back to work for me!

Although it was a pretty low key Thanksgiving break for us, the tree is up (and decorated). I got to play games with one of my new toys, courtesy of Black Friday sales. We saw good friends, and ate some good food. And now, it's back to routine. Looking forward to the next month, and the Holiday Spirit!

Love: Holidays and long weekends!
Hope: The routine goes smoothly tomorrow! It will be tough getting out of bed!
Do: Make my way to bed a bit early. Goodnight!

Green Friday?

Perhaps "Black" Friday should be renamed "green" Friday because of all the money people spend!

I love shopping. Love it. I love mornings. I love people watching. So, I ask, what about black Friday is NOT to love? As I headed out my door around 3:37am (to hit Target before they opened at 4am), I wondered if perhaps this would be the year I found out.

Instead, this is what I found:
* Not very many people were, like me, interested in the Wii Fit - easy Score!
* Some people will cut in line. And even when security is told, security will often do nothing about it.
* Some people truly are in the holiday spirit. See my "Thanks" below.
* Crowds can be awesome. You know, it's funny that some people really dislike "shopping" crowds. I am not among "those" people, however the crowds that occur somewhere like, for example, a concert are the crowds that make me start feeling a bit claustrophobic!
* Shopping is awesome. (Oh wait, maybe I already knew that.)
* Shopping centers with lots of places close by (for example, Kohls and Target) can be interesting.

Thanks: To the guy at home depot who offered to return my cart for me, even though I was in the very first row of cars parked in front of the store!
Love: SHOPPING! I guess maybe that's one of the reasons I named my blog as such?
Hope: I am not "shopped out" by Christmas!
Do: Need to start figuring out who I need to buy for, still!

Thanksgiving

For today's post, I thought I'd show - in pictures - the many things that I am thankful for! Unfortunately, all of my friends have never posed in a big group for a picture. And if I were to take a picture of all the food I am thankful for, the camera wouldn't be big enough. And there's my job that I love, my good health (how do you take a picture of that? I did run 5 miles this morning - pushing a stroller for all but the last quarter mile. How cool is that?).

There's so much more I am thankful for - but too little space on this blog to post it all.

Love: Holidays!
Hope: Everyone enjoys their holiday, wherever they are!
Do: Get to go eat turkey. Yay!

Holiday Chaos

As we approach the chaos that is the holidays, I am finding myself swept in. Swept into eating, swept into shopping, and swept into obsessing about eating, obsessing about shopping, and obsessing about obsessing!

Where do I go to see the best black friday ads? Where, if anywhere, do I want to go shopping? Do I go for the 3am, 4am, and 5am stores separately? Do I sleep in and take my chances? Do I really want/need anything that requires me to be out at that time in the morning?

As for eating, I will have my 2nd opportunity to "enjoy" thanksgiving as tomorrow approaches- with Kiddo's daycare.

Today was about going to the doctor and allergy testing (it is very painful having to watch a nurse draw blood from your child, in case you aren't aware and/or haven't had that experience).

I digress. Where was I? Shopping, yes.

Speaking of shopping, there's a catalog company that was at one time selling this awesomely cool mitten-like socks. I was not smart enough to order them when I saw them, and now they are gone - poof! And I am bummed. Very bummed, indeed.

And on to Starbucks. For some reason, although "starbucks" sounded like a good title for the blog at the time, it doesn't seem to be something that is all that bloggable that I can bring in to my occasional post. So I'm bringing it in today just in passing to make sure I cover it. I guess that's just something else I'm obsessing about?

Now we've covered Starbucks, Shopping, and Socks. And Eating.

I like posting after kiddo goes to bed. And now, I, too, shall join him in the sleeping world.

Love: Blogging to clear my head.
Hope: Tomorrow is fun! It sounds promising, and I will likely have a shorter day at work!
Thanks: For my four-leggers. I love them.
Do: Let those four-leggers outside!

It takes one...

... to know one.

You see, in case you were unaware, DH and I are both math nerds. When we first started dating, he told me his birthday was two days before pi day (which I had never heard of, but is, of course, 3/14 since pi is 3.14159... but I digress, already). He also sent me a "Power of 2" song - which is basically a mathematical love song. There's also a song with an actuary in it that was in a musical (but there I go, another digression already).

The point of this post, however, is 1 billion seconds. My DH reaches that milestone at some point tomorrow, and I purchased one billion grains of sand for him to mark the occasion (and also 'attempted' a surprise party, but spoiled the surprise by accidentally copying him on an email... oops!)

So, do you need to know when your one-billion (or 1.5 billion, or some other) second birthday? A quick google search will do the trick - but I used the timeanddate.com calendar (and probably another one) when figuring this out. I obsessed over it, also. I've had Monday 11/22 on my calendar for ages, with thoughts of different things to do.

So you may be wondering, how much sand is 1 billion grains? Approximately 430 pounds - but since sand only comes in 50# bags, DH got more than a billion. But I did not count them. And yes, the sand has a dual purpose: Kiddo needs a sand box!

This week is short and a bit crazy - but I enjoy all the food associated with Thanksgiving! I also look forward to some quality time with my boys!

Thanks: For the fabulous weather today! And for naptime. I've needed some extra sleep this weekend!
Hope: The holiday brings good cheer to those, like us, who will be unable to spend it with family.
Do: Get to bed early. Maybe then I'll feel like I can sleep in?
Love: My DH, and that we share a common nerdiness about numbers.

Half & Half

By half & half, I don't mean the stuff you put in coffee. Nope, today's blog (likely 'again') is about walking!

I believe we have reached the half & half point - that point where about 1/2 of mobility comes from crawling, still, but about half is walking! Yes, as of this week, kiddo has decided that two feet ARE good for something!

It's really fun to see him "toddle" around. He only starts over after falling down once in a while, but he can actually make it across about half of any room, and it's definitely fun to watch!

I also thought my daycare report on Friday was interesting. The "relief" teacher that is in there after about 3pm said, "No crying from Mark today!" Of course, he'd only been there about 1 1/2 hours, but at least - perhaps - the afternoon tears may be starting to go away!

Love: Watching kiddo learn- anything!
Thanks: for my health. It's not as great as it was 2 years ago, perhaps, but I've been lucky to not have anything major happen in quite some time (knock wood)!
Do: Need to get a bit more cleaning in this afternoon - and maybe some icecream!
Hope: We have a fun evening!