Wow, for the first time in almost five years I am alone in the house for over seven hours at a time and I love it. Since we had Little Man, like the week we had him, we had people asking us, “so when are you going to have another one?”, or “so when are you coming back to work?” Really people? Just because you have no life and have no interests and no hobbies, really doesn’t mean that I don’t. I have a life and it’s a rich, full happy life, with TONS of things I do.
First off I am a writer, I have been since I was in 10th grade and that is a passion of mine. Most of the time my “writing muse” is always on my shoulder and I am grateful for that for one day, I will actually be published more than just in some doll magazines that I am already published in and that makes me very happy and just want to write more. Without having a little one in the house chattering all of the time right now for a huge block of time, I’m able to think and have my “muse” actually talk to me and get ideas finally down on paper, much like I’m doing now.
Second I am a photographer. I have loved taking pictures since I was little. At the time I always had my dad’s Polaroid and had to wait for the actual picture to develop. Since then and now we have digital cameras and that is the best thing on the planet. Being able to take a picture and see it or delete it and not worry about the cost of film is exhilarating. You can always take a picture either on your digital camera or on your phone for the most part anytime. I have several friends who want to teach me Photoshop and when that happens, I’ll have more to do with my pictures. But at least right now, thank god for apps on my iPhone that can manipulate my pictures to make them even better. I have just a little over 10,000+ pictures on Flickr and most of them are of Little Man in his first five years of life. The second set of pictures is of my dolls, which brings me to my third passion.
Third, I am a hobbyist. I have SEVERAL hobbies, once of which is my dolls that I have collected for almost the last seven years. Long before Little Man came into our world.
My dolls make it able for me to write, and take photos and be published in some magazine either because of the type of pictures I have taken or because of the collection of dolls I own. I don’t own as many as some, but the ones that I own are mine and I love them. They make me happy, they make me creative and they hopefully one day will make me money either with photos or with books. I’m a huge dollhouse lover also. I have always wanted to live in an old Victorian house and until that happens, I’m happy to build dollhouses that fulfill that need and want. And this leads me to my fourth obsession.
Fourth I am a scrap booker and proud of it. I love paper, well, no, I HAVE a paper fetish, this probably comes from working at Xerox for the amount of years that I did. I learned what 20lb, 24lb, 60lb, 65lb and 100lb stock is and the grades, the watermarks, types of linens, cotton, pastel, bright and everything in between. Scrapbooking is a huge industry and the amount of papers and books and embellishments and brads, and punches and scissors and all that encompasses it I have or will go and get. I honestly get a high when my monthly magazines come in from the mail or when a new item has been released at Archivers, Hobby Lobby, or JoAnn’s. Most of the scrapbooking for the last five years has gone pretty much to Little Man. He has more scrapbooks, photo books and baby albums than a combination of four kids. I have one baby album from when I was a child, that is yellowed and being kept together with a rubber band. I have one album of photos from birth till about my senior year, which are also yellowed and starting to fall apart. My parents weren’t interested in keeping up with pictures when I was a child, but that’s okay, I am with my children.
Our little girl isn’t even born yet or here and she already has three albums waiting for her to have pictures taken and put in a book and uploaded to Flickr and Facebook. My dear husband had NO pictures of him from when he was little, like not ONE and that’s pretty sad I think, so I have taken it upon myself to make sure that our kids have more than enough. I want them to get to the point where they say, “really mom, more pictures.” I don’t ever want them to say to me, “well you never took pictures, or I don’t have any memories of such and such.” They will never be able to say that to me, EVER. Along with their baby albums and Flickr pictures, I have kept an ongoing journal for them. Little Man’s gets updated about once a month or so, depending on what’s going on in his life. And he also has a small scrap book of ticket stubs of all the movies that he has gone to. I want him to know and remember even if he doesn’t have the memory of what we did, but a place to be able to read about and see what he did while he was little. These are things that I enjoy doing for them and I look forward to making new scrap pages for them, or writing in their journal so that when they are grown and out of the house and start to have families of their own, they will have some sort of small time capsule to be able to look back and say, “wow, mom really took the time to remember that I went to the zoo, or that we stayed in line all night long to see the last Harry Potter movie, and here is my ticket stub and she wrote about who all I got to meet, and took pictures of it.”
Fifth I am a female. I have come to recently realize that I am female because I love getting my nails done and going and getting a pedicure and getting facials and getting my hair done. I relish the times that I can take an hour or so out of the weekend and have these little treasures done for me and to get a massage. I also love the fact that I have girlfriends that I can go and get dressed up with and go have tea at a tea shop and have little girly sandwiches and wear fluffy dresses and big old hats. Bunny gets to dress me up :)
Sixth I’m a wife. This is my third time at being a wife, and I think that I’ve gotten it down now and done right finally. LOL. But being a wife doesn’t define me, it’s just a part of what I do during the day. I’m there for FireHoth to listen to and be able to discuss things with, and for us to do things as a couple. This is the easy part for me, because I have had other relationships and I’m happy now, and have a partner who has almost the same interests as me and even some cooler ones that I don’t have. He loves to hear about my dolls, what I’m writing about, what pictures I took and helps me with my hobbies, the way I help him and encourage him in his. Was I happy I’ve had two divorces, well, hell, no, but I’m glad I did because it got me to the man I’m supposed to be with, and Nathan Fillion doesn’t know me yet. LOL
Seventh, I’m a mother. I have waited for 20 years to be a mother and I enjoy it, but my child is not my entire life either. Stated above, I have many and varied interests. I am extremely lucky and blessed to be able to have stayed home with my child and even though it was hard at times I wouldn’t’ change it for anything in the world. Maybe there was a reason for me not having children in my other relationships and for that I thank god. I wouldn’t’ have been able to have stayed home, and be able to have nurtured them the way I wanted to. In the four and a half years that we stayed home together, we did tons of stuff even before I had means to drive. From the time he turned about 18 months old almost every day for at least two hours a day I taught him to read so that the time he got into preschool, he had a second grade reading level, he knew all of his colors, shapes, numbers, address, how to write his name and address and everyone else name that he knew. I was able to get him to eat healthy which for me is ironic considering I can’t stand vegetables or much fruit. So that by the time he is in school full time, alone, whatever I put in his lunch, (vegetables and fruit) he will eat them without protest and I know that he’s getting a good lunch instead of most kids his age eating just fries and chips and cookies like other kids in his class. Plus with him not having any allergies, I can put diary, nuts, honey, and wheat in his lunch and not be concerned with anything that has the word GLUTEN in it. Ugh.
Eighth, I am an exercise enthusiast. I wish I could be better at it. I so want to join a Pilates class or start doing Yoga. I LOVE my treadmill and since I have been walking along with being a mother I have gone through and ruined three treadmills, I know it’s crazy. While on the treadmill I am able to get through my soaps, reality shows, news, or any other HD shows I find interesting. We also are members of the zoo, go to the botanical gardens, and take nature hikes (which is a big thing for me, you know, BEES). There is so much here in Colorado to take in that it will take more than a life time to do it. 300 days of sunshine, you gotta be out there for half of it.
Ninth, I am a media buff also. TV, books, movies, music. TV is in my DNA and I’m pretty sure it’s in Little Man’s also, but with who he has for parents it makes sense. Not sure if it’s a good thing, but his favorite shows right now besides SpongeBob are Toddlers and Tiaras and Frasier, ha ha ha ha. The iPad has taken my movie watching and book reading to an entirely different level. We (myself and FireHoth) have so many seasons of different shows we want to catch up on, we might never be able to finish them, but we will always have something to look forward too.
Since Little Man will be in school now, I might actually be able to get caught up on like nine seasons of Desperate Housewives, YEAH ME. Then there is Charmed and StarGate to finish, Weeds, Dexter, and Angel to get started. Being friends with so many different age groups in my life I have gotten into Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends,(thanks Bunny) and Game of Thrones (thanks Shlee). I can’t wait for Camelot and The Killing and The Borgia’s to come back on. And that doesn’t even include the regular fall shows like ALL the Law & Orders, Survivor, Kate Plus 8, LA Ink, NY Ink, Deadliest Catch, 19 Kids and Counting. And with Little Man being the age he is, the amount of movies we go to as a family or in a group are fantastic. To have him sit through Harry Potter, or Captain America and Cars, then we all go out for dinner is the perfect weekend. I have sooooooo many books on my phone or the iPad to get caught up on also, plus the cool games that I’ve been able to get from friends or ones that I pass along to them.
Plus I LOVE ANGRY BIRDS, AND WILL FINALLY FINISH ANGRY BIRDS EASTER, HA HA HA HA HA
Tenth, I am spiritual. Many of you, who know me, know that I’m not Christian and my spirituality goes in other directions and that’s okay, really it is. I’m not going to hell, (since there is no hell and if there is, it’s in Omaha). I haven’t been able to practice my beliefs in a while and that has been by choice, because there have been other things (see above) that I have wanted to do or get caught up on. Lately in the last week or so I have been able to get back to my Pagan Roots and start to be calm, and meditate more and be more cautious of my surroundings and environment. And yes, I detest anything that buzz’s I will be getting back outside more into nature, and with my spare time, go on more walks instead of being on the treadmill all the time.
Along with everything stated above, I am also a maid, cook, baker, dishwasher, gardener (which I actually like as long as there are no bees in my eyesight), lover, friend, therapist, relationship adviser, girlfriend, and all around listener of my friends. And I am the house technical support staff (I'm really not getting paid enough for that gig). Plus after being on my own, for almost 30 years, I need a break. I need to take a nap during the day if I want to, or go window shopping at the mall.
Soon enough Little Miss will be here, we still don’t know when but she will be and then my mothering, teacher instincts will kick in again and I will make her as smart, confident and over the top as her brother. Plus by that time Little Man will no doubt be into some sort of sports or after school activity and that will take whatever other time to do and be with him and give him our support on. So for everyone who thinks I will be bored, trust me when I say this, IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN.
I will die with stuff on my to-do list. Then once everything is done, I can sleep.
