Wordless Wednesday

Five (or, really, Ten) Things

One of the bloggers I follow, Nicole did a fun little post yesterday that she found on another blogger's site.  It was fun to read, and I thought I'd do something similar.  The original tag was Five Things You Didn't Know About Me, but both Nicole and the woman she saw the idea from posted ten, so I thought I'd do the same thing.

1.) My Food Can't Touch ever...We're talking even at Thanksgiving, corn and mashed potatoes....if they touch, I don't eat that part.  OK, so if you know me, perhaps you already did know that.  At one point, my friends threatened to give me a lifetime supply of the Styrofoam divider plates as a wedding gift if I got married....did y'all ever wonder if that's why I'm still single :-)

2.) As a child, I hated my name. I mean, HATED it.... When my brother was born, he was named for my mom's dad, who had passed away three months before JT was born, and I was jealous.  John was named for someone, for Grandpa, and, really, for Great-Grandpa.  He had tradition behind him.  Me? Apparently I was named for a character on a movie that my parents watched when my mom was pregnant.   Dad liked the name and it stuck.  Of course, as my mom once pointed out, there weren't great choices for me.  After being presented with the options of Verona (Mom's Mom), Mildred (Dad's "foster" Mom), Bernice (Mom's Mom's middle name) or my great-grandmothers Olga or Ida, I decided Staci was just fine.

3.) I really, REALLY, want to trace back my family ancestry. This probably has to do with the item above. I want to know some family names.   My dad was in foster homes most of his life, and I know his dad's name, and have actually been able to trace that arm of the family back to when they came to the United States.  Mom's mom's side I can also trace back pretty far; it's the other two sides I can't.  I found a census form that was completed when my uncle was a baby, so I have a first name (Although it doesn't match what I'd been told at one point), but can't trace it back any further.  Then, there's my mom's dad's side...yeah, NOTHING, zilch, nada.  Grandpa's parents were gone before he married my grandmother, and back then people just didn't talk about those things; so we're kind of at a stopping point.  I guess I was hoping for some exciting name that didn't sound too old fashioned, but no such luck.

4.If I were picking my career today, it would likely be in law enforcement. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, it's fun, challenging and I get the opportunity to meet a lot of new people.  Being on the road like I am, I don't get sucked into the "day in day out" routine.  That said, what I do isn't "life altering."  I don't save lives or protect people from harm, I just help people with ways to calculate taxes....pretty dull, huh

5.I am NOT a morning person. I'm told as a baby I had my days and nights mixed up, and I'm not sure that I ever truly outgrew that.  I'm most productive late at night; whether it's something for work, baking cookies, cleaning, I can get more done after 10PM than I can before 10AM.

6. I'm afraid of Thunderstorms. Well, the lightning more than the thunder, but the whole storm.  Growing up, my parents house was struck 13 different times, and most of those times I was actually a witness to the ball of fire.  Now, when there are thunderstorms, even if they're not severe, I'll camp out in the basement (which is a big part of the reason that I finished part of mine up....sitting on a piece of carpet wasn't exactly a really great place to wait out storms).

7. I can't drive a standard transmission. My parents are still arguing (20+ years later) about who spent more time teaching me how to drive, so they never tried.  My brother tried once or twice, but the left side of my body (i.e. the clutch foot) and the right side of my body (i.e. the shifter hand) just don't work together.

8. I still remember the first thing I got wrong in school. I was in first grade, and the assignment was to color the pictures of all of the "short vowel" words.  I didn't color the bag...because I don't say bah-g...I say BAG.  Long A.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

9. When I make a mistake, even a small one, I beat myself up over it for a long time. I'm far from perfect, but when I make a mistake that someone else catches, I dwell on it and confidence in myself takes a hit.  So much so that, at points, I've refrained from doing things simply because, once upon a time, I screwed up.

10. I haven't given up on my dream to have kids. Growing up, my career changed many times (although I always knew I never wanted to be a bus driver)...n first grade, I wanted to be an astronaut, in fourth, a teacher; n middle school, I wanted to be a nurse and then a lawyer; by the time I got to high school, I knew I wanted to be an accountant.  Throughout all of this, I knew I wanted to be a mom.  In fact, part of the reason I opted for accounting is because it offers flexibility.  I wasn't going to be burned like my mom was when she took a few years off of work to have kids; at least in accounting I knew there would always be a job for me.  Now, as I'm pushing 40, the odds of me having kids are getting slimmer, but I haven't given up on that dream yet.

Fun Finds!

I've got a cold, one of those knock-you on your backside colds where you just want to lay around and do nothing....and, I still have spring cleaning to do.  I took it a bit slower this weekend than I wanted to, but at least I got the worst remaining sections done - the walk-in closet and dressers in my bedroom are now cleaned.  As a result of my efforts, I have several bags to take to Goodwill next Saturday when I meet my best friend and her two kiddos for lunch.

Cleaning my dresser drawers is kind of like putting on a coat for the first time in the fall and finding a $10 bill that was left in the pocket.  When I'm in a hurry to clean, I tend to toss things in the drawers...out of sight, out of mind.  Tonight I found all sorts of treasures...some money, a gift card, and probably the best surprise of all..some memory cards from my camera (ones that I thought had been lost).

Sure made for a fun evening to look back at....


My trip to Brazil

A preseason game in Houston to see my favorite QB (from the year I defected to the Vikings in protest of Ted Thompson, hmmm perhaps I should consider that once again)

My fur child welcoming the Newman Pup Crew (from NASCAR driver Ryan Newman's charity) members the day they arrived.  Krissie Newman, Ryan's wife, actually tweeted me back when I made this my picture on Twitter, cool, huh?



There were also some family pics from a few years back, including our trip to NYC. I'm thinking John probably could kill me for this first pic...





Time spent with my great-aunt.  Side note, Aunt Moise's one of only two family members shorter than I am.  Her husband (my grandma's brother) was a carpenter, and he built the cabinets in their house to be just a little lower than normal. Smart idea...wish I'd have thought of that, then I wouldn't have to tote around my little two-step ladder to every freaking room (or, as too often is the case, try to reach that extra inch or so only to make a bunch o' crap come falling down on me - hence why Spring Cleaning is taking such a blasted long time).



 A picture of my mom and brother at a wedding he stood up for (Mom is probably going to kill me for putting this one in here, I think the sun was in her eyes so that's why she's got such a silly look on her face)...


Christmas at my cousin's house near Chicago.  Apparently, whilst we were blissfully taking pictures, singing carols and eating WAAYYYYY too much good food inside, we didn't notice how much snow we were getting outside.   I was driving, so no pictures of the "make your own lane" freeway near Wind Point, but let me tell you it wasn't fun.



I also found a couple of pictures that made me reflect.  The woman pictured on Santa's lap with her two grandchildren became close to our hearts when she and my brother were involved in the same volunteer organization.  She passed away the May after this picture was taken, but she'll forever live in our hearts.  R.I.P Dee...



And this one...  My mom went to Sheboygan County Teacher's College with the women pictured here.  They all settled down in Sheboygan County, but were pretty spread out.  As I got older, I often ended up at their children's weddings as my mom's guest so I got to know them as well.  They lost their first member earlier this year, an energetic woman who never let her health battles bring her down, and embraced the challenges set in front of her with the knowledge that at the end of her journey she would be met by her Savior.  Pretty sure that if Jesus wasn't a Packer's fan before, Diana will have him converted before this pre-season.  R.I.P. Dianna.


Well, time to close this post.  I have one other I want to make tonight, something that I'd seen on a fellow blogger's page, and then I think it's time to go to bed.  Those of you who know me know I'm a night owl, so being in bed two nights in a row before 9:00 is unheard of....I sure hope this dang cold leaves soon.

 

 

Spring Cleaning

Back in September of 2005 when I told my grandmother that I was buying my own place, the first words out of her mouth were "Are you going to keep it clean?"  In February of 2006, on the day that I finally moved in, Grandma passed away, and I vowed even harder that I was going to keep the place clean (a part of me feared she would actually come back to haunt me if I didn't).

For the first few months, I did a pretty good job. I cleaned the bathrooms, ran the vacuum and dusted every weekend.  I was actually pretty thorough in my cleaning, including dusting the baseboards and door frames on a weekly basis.  Then came June of 2006, and some unexpected changes that I wasn't exactly excited about.  When my home office became more cluttered as a result of these changes, it became more difficult to keep up with the cleaning.  Eventually, I decided to outsource my housekeeping, first with a professional firm, and more recently with a local woman.

Let me clarify that my house isn't something out of "hoarders" or the show "Clean House."  Things are fairly clean thanks to my cleaning lady who dusts, vacuums, scrubs and cleans the bathrooms every other week (in addition to the regular tasks she has, in the past, helped me to organize my walk-in closet and on many occasions has emptied the dryer and folded laundry).  The thing is, some of the tasks that I initially did as a part of my weekly housekeeping routine really aren't bi-weekly tasks a housekeeper should do, they are more of a one-off thing that should be done occasionally by meand I've neglected to do them.. Plus, as you may recall, there was a period of time where there was construction, which resulted in not only construction dust, but heavy foot traffic.  When people were coming over, I would often use my office as a "staging area" for drying sweaters, etc. and there was always a pile of things to sort through on one spot of my kitchen counter.

For quite some time, I excused my failure to deep clean on the fact that I was "busy."  That excuse falls short, though, when I see a blogger I follow post pictures of her house with nothing out of place even though she works full time and she and her husband have a toddler and a dog who I highly doubt are mess-free.  If she can keep her house looking good on her own, there's certainly no reason my house shouldn't look spotless.

This year, I resolved to spring clean the entire house; working backwards from Memorial Day, I scheduled out exactly what I needed to do every weekend to not only get the yard and garage (which I have done an annual, and often semi-annual cleaning of) ready for summer, but also to pace myself through a spring cleaning.  When I was little, in addition to her weekly housekeeping, my mom used to do a semi-annual deep clean of the house.  I loved spring and fall cleaning; there's something about that 'fresh cleaned' smell that you get during a deep clean, so I was jazzed about actually taking the time to do this.

I started at the beginning of March, with a deep clean of the kitchen, emptying out the cupboards, wiping them down, and reorganizing them.  I was pretty proud of the results, and was excited for the next weekend to come around to start on the next rooms.  Of course, the best laid plans sometimes go awry, and that's what happened.  I wound up working from home the following weekend, and on the road the weekend after that, which meant I was now two weeks behind schedule.  Thankfully, my mom and dad came over and wiped down the village that I have above my cupboards, as well as the birdhouses and suitcases on my plant shelves...I think they were afraid this uncoordinated daughter of theirs would probably fall of the ladder if I was left to do this on my own.

This past week, I was lucky enough to not have to travel anywhere for work, so I was able to use my nights to catch up.   I've been borrowing tips from some bloggers that I follow, and am pretty proud of what I accomplished.  First order of business, I tackled the laundry room, cleaning behind the washer and dryer, wiping down and reorganizing all of the cabinets and putting away the clothes that was hanging up.  One thing I noted, the bain of my laundry activity - Lost Socks, haunted me not only when matching the darn things, but also in finding a "holding pattern" (I have clearly spent too much time on airplanes) for those unmatched clean ones.  It's amazing what you can find on Pinterest though, and I now have a new solution for the lost sock challenge.

After tackling the laundry, I moved on to the utility closet and back hall.  Okay, not a whole lot to do here, just reorganize things and wipe down the woodwork, but still in need of a little TLC.  I then moved on to the stairs and the basement.  The walls were in need of cleaning, courtesy of my fur child shaking the hairball remedy off of his paw and onto my walls; and even though the basement is a recent addition, it was good to give that a little attention as well.  I reconfigured a few pieces of furniture wiped down the walls, hung some pictures that needed rearranging, and that was done.  Moving on to the front entry and hall, I reorganized the front closet, got rid of the spider webs in the closet, wiped down the woodwork, and washed the inside storm door window.

Once I'd gotten some easy tasks under my belt, I moved on to the main bath.  Again, the biggest issue was organizing the cupboards and the linen closet.  I've found through this process that not using the step stool when I should is not a good practice, but everything is now neatly in its place, and in the future I won't try to reach things beyond my height level.

The last room I tackled this week was my office.  I shredded, purged and filed the avalanche of paperwork in the closet; resorted the bins that I had for office supplies, and wiped down the woodwork.  This may sound simple, but it took several hours to get through this one.  During this process I discovered that I may just be addicted to office supplies.  I have enough rulers, notebooks and post-it notes to last me a decade.  I also found tons of stuff that didn't belong in the office that I'd stashed in the closet at one time or another - Christmas decorations that I'd bought at the after Christmas sales; postcards and mementos from different places I've traveled that should be in with my scrapbooking items; and lots of picture frames that I intended to print pictures for.  Instead of just moving the frames somewhere else or putting them back into the closet "until there was time" I took the time to print out pictures and set the frames out - a much better use than sitting in a box or a closet, don't you think?

Since I anticipate getting back on the road shortly, and I do need time to maintain what I have cleaned, the last area for spring cleaning - my bedroom, bathroom, and closet, will be spread over a few weeks.  This will still give me plenty of time for my outdoor chores...cleaning the garage, getting my front porch and patio set for summer, cleaning up my flowerbeds and spreading mulch, all before Memorial Day.

After that, the goal is to be in maintenance mode for a few months before I start Fall Cleaning.  Wish me luck.