One man's trash...

The other day, in my retirement, I decided to dedicate the day to cleaning out all the extra junk in my apartment, and achieve goal #98-Throw out as much stuff as I can.  It seems that every time I move I think I'm done unpacking and then find ~5 more boxes of things I forgot I had, and obviously didn't need.  And then I say "someday I'm going to get rid of a lot of this stuff" so I finally did.  But it turns out that maybe I'm not cut out for such a thing. My sister, Sarah and I have both confided that the show Hoarders horrifies us, both because it's gross and because we are a little terrified that it will be us someday.  My dad has the hoarder gene.  And he passed it to us.  I have a pretty strong hatred of clutter, though too, so here's hoping I'll be able to stave it off long enough that I never make it on the show.

So I went through every drawer, every closet, every cabinet and I got rid of everything I knew I could do without.  It came out to be about 6 big trash bags.  So theoretically everything that is still in my house is something I've decided I really should keep and will most likely use in the future.  See below and you be the judge.  But please understand I've already judged myself.  

I now present to you a few of the things I decided to keep:

This little number is from the height of both my tomboy stage and my copy-everything-Sarah-did phase (she has/had one in red).  It honestly feels a little vulnerable sharing this because of how embarrassing it is.  But I still love this shirt enough that I feel like it will "come back" someday (severely questionable that it was ever in) and I'll be able to wear it again.  But also I'll just wear it at home whenever I want and still enjoy it.  It is a size XS and not tiny which almost definitely says even J. Crew considered this piece 'mens' even in the flannel-shirts-are-feminine 90s. 

This painting came from one of those do a painting drink a glass of wine experiences.  It was a really fun night, but with this outcome one might wonder why on earth it's still in my home?  Fair.  I think I think I'll repurpose the canvas, but who knows.  Maybe this little beauty will be with us for a while, it made it through one round of scrutiny.  White Elephant anyone?  (Did I mention I was a studio art major?  And I totally scoffed when my dad thought that might not be the most appropriate major for me?)

This is a bag of buttons that I've been saving for a while.  Buttons and extra thread it looks like.  The answer to the question in your head is no.  No I've never once needed one.

This next one is something I've never stopped thinking was awesome.  But what do you EVER use a switchblade comb for?  If you have an answer I'd really love to hear it because I've been hanging onto this since I bought it in Washington DC on a 10th grade trip just waiting for that answer.  And I hang on to it still...

Last, but obviously not least is this sweatshirt that Kristen Rieke found for me at a thrift store in California a few years ago.  I love it.  And yet, I don't think I'll ever be cool enough to pull this off in any situation.  But it sits in my closet as if some day I might find the perfect use for it.

So, again, I'm going to chalk this up as a goal achieved, but let's all agree that I won't feel overly pleased with myself.  BUT to end on a celebratory note.  I did get rid of all this:

And my two friends at Goodwill couldn't have been nicer when they accepted all my gems.  If they only knew what they'd missed out on...

Little Miss Lauren turns 5

About 4.5 years ago my big brother called and asked if I would be his new daughter's Godmother.  I'm not sure I can think of a time when I was more honored than that day.  My brother has, since my very first days, been my hero.  He is 8 years older than I am and intolerably cool (especially when I was an awkward 4th grader and he was the captain of the football and lacrosse teams as a senior in High School).  When I was little and he would get home from practice I let him "teach me" his new tackles that he learned that day.  I'm pretty sure I had to agree not to cry, and sometimes it took everything I had not to, but it was always worth it to get to hang out with him.  More recently he has become one of the best fathers I've seen; a guy who always talked about his future sons has moved flawlessly into the Princess parties and manicures that come with being the father of two girls. 

Here we are in the glory days.  Check out those stripes.  I guess I've always been fashion forward...

It was also an honor because of how awesome my own Godparents are.  Who wouldn't want to be friends with this guy?  Almost everybody looks just as delighted as Lilly does when they get to hang out with myGodfather/Uncle Chuck...

So I felt that I had a lot to live up to.  I got to attend Lauren's baptism, but beyond that it didn't feel like there was much that I could do as a Godmother for a little baby (except love her like crazy, which came pretty easily).  So I decided a while ago that I wanted to give her a bible at some point when it seemed like she was ready for it.  I'm not sure that she is spiritually ready :)  but since Lauren is getting closer to reading now, it seemed right.  So goal #46 was to get Lauren a Bible.  I had been looking for a while for one that seemed appropriate for her, and then I found this little number...

Just her style- pink!  So I sent this to Lauren for her 5th birthday, today.  My family tends to be really good at writing an inscription in books that are gifts, and that is usually my favorite part about the book, so I inscribed this one with some words that I hope will be meaningful to Lauren for years to come, but mostly I hope the book itself will be meaningful to her.  I think it is an excellent source for telling us all how to have a full life.  Not a life with the fun sucked out of it in the name of obedience, and not a book that gives people an excuse to hate anyone, but one that tells us how to love and trust, and challenges us to be what our Creator knows we have the potential to be.  I hope she will see the same truths in those pages. 

 Here she is reading it this morning!  So cute!

Lauren is such a fun little girl with a sweet, fierce heart.  One day at preschool she got in trouble for hitting one of the little boys in her class.  I think my brother was proud of her already without hearing the explanation because he hopes she won't date until she's at least 35.  But the rest of us were more proud when we heard that the little victim had been bullying another kid and Lauren knew he was being mean.  So she popped him.  Sure we're supposed to tell her not to hit, but I'm pretty sure she got a high 5 from everyone in our family that night.  

Here are some of my faves of little Lauren:

I swear that's a smile on her first day of life.

Ready for a blizzard (she's certainly an Arizona girl)

And the best:  

She had the fashion sense to laugh at Lilly's ridiculous outfit.  Well done, Lauren!  (sorry Lill)

Happy 5th Birthday Sweet Lauren!  I love you so much!

If at first you don't succeed... retire.

What's funny about the fact that I haven't written in such a long time is that the last thing I said was "but I bet that one thunderstorm will be really charming."  Ooops, it was a real whopper* of a storm and it actually made my flight delayed by 5 hours.  I was flying into Atlanta, and with the storm there, no planes were allowed to take off out of Atlanta (quick note:  I honestly just typed "plain" and "aloud" in that sentence.  I realized it before I was done typing the word, but still, someone might need to go back to school.) The plane that was supposed to come pick me up couldn't take off until the storm was over, then it still had to get us and take us back.

*You ask me price

A few charming things happened during my 6 hour sit in the airport though.  I kind of love the moments when it feels like you're all in it together, and this was definitely one of those times.  TSA wouldn't have been happy, but people were watching each others bags, one lady fell asleep on her stranger neighbor's shoulder and he didn't make her move, and I got to talk to two ladies who were about to leave on a trip to meet up with 6 of their other best friends from college for an annual weekend together.  I have a group of friends that does almost the exact same thing! so, since they were a little older we got to talk about what they've learned for planning and bringing babies along, etc.  They made me so excited for my trip two months later.  Charming story short, I landed in Atlanta at 3:30am, met up with my sweet uncle who had been waiting there for me since 11pm the day before, and we arrived at another uncle's house a little before 5am.  The good news is that the weather was delightful the whole rest of the weekend.  It was also the best weekend of my year, getting to be with my cute, funny family in the most beautiful Southern adult camp you'll ever see.  It's not really a camp, but what else can you call a place that has ping pong, golf, tennis, and a boat club where you call ahead and they have your kayaks all ready for you?  And where dolphins swim around you!  In South Carolina!  We also got to take bikes through the whole place and saw maybe the most amazing thing I've seen to date: a baby armadillo.  Maybe you've seen this video, my baby armadillo was even younger than that one!  It was all pink and its shell was soft and it forgot for a little bit that it was afraid of us and just moseyed across the path we were biking on.  Win win win.

That was a long aside to say that it was a great trip, but it sure wasn't a charming thunderstorm.  You're welcome.  Now to the goals.

I haven't been slacking on the achieving of goals, just on the writing about them.  So now I will write about a goal I've been working on but haven't yet achieved.

I may have mentioned that at the end of June I finished up my job where I was a smiling face to answer a phone.   I left because I wanted to both be available for any last minute teaching jobs that posted, and feel the discomfort of unemployment to push me to apply for as many teaching jobs as humanly possible.  At the beginning of the summer I found out about a job that would be available this fall at the school where I did my student teaching 5 years ago, and in Kindergarten, no less.  If I could make up a job to want, that's pretty much the one I would have made up.  They called me a week and a half ago to offer me an interview, I was thrilled, and immediately told about everyone I know so that they could be praying for me, for it, for whatever they wanted.

It was really incredible to me how many people called and texted me the night before and morning of the interview.  Including encouragement from my family, most of my old coworkers, all of the FFW girls, and lots of friends.  My sister in law who worked at the school called to prep me the day before, two of my teacher friends talked teacher jargon with me for a few hours, and I even bought some books that another teacher friend told me that all the teachers are talking about.  Well I didn't get the job.  They hired someone with more Kindergarten experience than I have; apparently they didn't think that men's fashion experience was applicable?  What?  So what I've realized is that while I know that I'm going to be a great teacher one day, they don't know me from Adam and I need to prove myself and get some experience.  So that's what this year will be.  I have always sort of landed in the laps of other jobs, so I expected that to happen again, but I think it will be good for me to go through a process of preparing and working hard for this thing I really want.  And it will make me one thankful little teacher one day. 

The upside of a life of semi-permanent retirement is this:  I have a whole lot of time to accomplish goals. So I can't cross off #39- Get a teaching job, but not everything is accomplished on the first try!  The learning is in the trying again.  I hope.

So you better be ready for me goals, because I'm coming in hot!