Holiday Break

Work is somewhat dampening my feelings of rest and relaxation this week. Huge release soon, and I was up ALL night finishing up some stuff because I REFUSE to work during this break with my family. So what WILL I be doing during this glorious five-day weekend?



Cooking dinner. I LOVE Thanksgiving dinner. My husband and I anticipate this wonderful meal months in advance! My specialties are baked macaroni & cheese (no one makes it as good as I do), turkey dressing, and potato salad. Chris makes the best turkey smoked greens. We also usually prepare corn, potato souffle, cranberry sauce, and cornbread. I'm about to get started shortly.

Reading. I, like most people who are married with kids, NEVER find time to just sit down and leisurely read. For someone who loves books so much, it's a shame that I don't get this opportunity much. Maybe I'll get back into this great programming book I love or possibly even FINALLY pick back up on Book 6 of Harry Potter.

Putting up the Christmas tree. This will mark the earliest that we will have done this! Every year I dream of decorating the tree on Thanksgiving evening after dinner. Christmas has definitely come earlier this year than most others and I'm excited about that! Best time of year FOR SURE!

Resting, resting, resting. I hope that what I do more than anything else is just lay around and relax. Whenever I get a break from work, I always feel this guilt about resting. I was raised that way though...a day off meant time to get chores done and go visit people you haven't seen in a long time. There's no resting! Well my hubby and I don't share this philosophy on life, so I'm more than happy to lay around in my pj's all day!



Dinner with family. We are going to my parents' house this year, as we do every year. Last year, we actually met at a restaurant not far from the hospital my grandmother was staying in at the time. My mom was with her 24 hours a day 7 days a week, so getting mom to leave for a little while for dinner was a task. But with things turning out the way they did, this year will be really special at my parents' house. We'll be sure not to take anything or anyone for granted anymore.

Try some new hairstyles and makeup. I used to be really good at styling my hair really pretty. After becoming a mom, that just took such a low priority. If I have a little time, I may play around with it this weekend. I also have a TON of makeup that I've bought over time that's accumulating. Might play around with that too; I used to be a glamour girl, and now it's like I don't even care anymore. It happens to many of us though...I just don't want to completely neglect my looks full time...I'm already going down that path now with my lack of exercise and my bad eating habits. I don't want to become a complete hag, if I can help it.

Starting a new blog. I used to post to this blog almost every single day. That was before all of my worlds began to collide. Before my family, church family, co-workers, and friends were all accessible to my thoughts and a recount of my actions via the same medium. It's made it difficult for me to be completely transparent. There are now repercussions for being honest and true to who you are online. So I'm going to do the same thing a good friend of mine has done. I'm creating a "private" blog where I can just be Tami and talk about the things that are a deep part of me and I that I may sometimes want trusted feedback on. I'll continue to post to this blog about the cool, funny and superficial things that are current. But I'm guarding my heart and not exposing every part of me to the public anymore.

That should be enough for 5 days. Next week is going to be ridiculously busy so I better enjoy every moment I can! Have a great Thanksgiving Day and remember to show and/or tell those around you how important they are to you!

"I won't be IGNORED!"

Remember that classic line from Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction"? Any woman watching that scene could relate to that line. Even if you aren't a home-wrecking, man-stealing, psychopath, one thing ALL women can relate to is how much we HATE being ignored.

A good friend of mine told me something a while back that I'll never forget. She said, "Some people are miserable enough to go out of their way to make you feel left out and ignored." At the time I thought she was expressing the sentiment of someone who was extremely paranoid. But as time moved forward, I began to clearly see what she meant.

Ever get the feeling that someone is INTENTIONALLY ignoring you? You go out of your way to get to know them, only to be rebuffed with silence? You make yourself available to them repeatedly but get no response from them? Your first thought may be, "Oh they're just busy and will reach out when they have time." Except, you soon notice that they reach out to others pretty regularly...just not you. :-) Ever felt this way?

What does it mean? Maybe they already have enough friends, and just aren't interested in making anymore. Maybe they find your particular personality annoying. That's possible. Maybe they think you're being fake, because NO ONE can be THAT genuinely nice! Or maybe they are envious of you. You and your encouraging smiles actually remind them of how unhappy they are. Who knows!

That's the overall point I am getting to. Who knows, and who CARES? I don't think we should love people any less because they don't jump for joy when we come around. Maybe if we try to be more understanding of the fact that they are at a period in their life right now where they are just not that into you. They definitely have that right, and it should be respected. If we genuinely care about them, wouldn't we focus more on praying for them than analyzing why they aren't reacting to us a certain way in the flesh?

Sometimes being ignored is a good thing. Maybe it's not meant for you to be caught up in whatever drama they may have going on. And maybe it's meant for you to stay strong and far enough away from their situation to provide the best type of assistance possible...the fervent prayers of a strong believer. Being ignored doesn't seem so bad when you think of it this way, does it? :-)

Road to Fitness and Good Nutrition: Day 3

It's like, why am I even still posting these at this point? I've completely abandoned the whole healthy/fitness idea the past two days. But at some point I've got to get tired of coming here making excuses on why I didn't get to the gym. Now, I will say that today I actually did have a good excuse for not making the gym and abandoning my diet plan. If you don't mind TMI, go ahead and highlight the next three words. Womanly issues today. So here's how my day went:

8:45am - chicken burrito from Chick-Fil-A (not too bad of a start at all; I didn't eat the tortilla, just the inside of it)

9:15am - large cup of water

11:00am - Snickers bar (WTH??) I don't even know where this craving came from; oh wait, just I do...the TMI from earlier in the post. Never mind.

2:30pm - birthday cookie w/frosting

9:00pm - rotisserie chicken, salad with buttermilk ranch dressing, chips w/guacamole

9:30pm - kiwi flavored juice

And I'm in a bad mood tonight. No one has done anything to me; everyone has been wonderful. My hubby even went out and got me the yummy eats I was craving. I'm just tired and need a vacation, I think. Off to bed then.

Road to Fitness and Good Nutrition: Day 2

When I'm bad, I'm REALLY bad! the day started off a little rough and went downhill from there:

I mentioned when I posted yesterday (Monday) evening that I was planning to go to bed early so that I wouldn't be tempted to eat anything bad for me. I've got some type of chronic sinus issue that has been keeping me from sleeping soundly for a very long time. Even though I drifted off to sleep at 11pm, I woke up at 2pm unable to breathe through my nose. I stayed up until 5am, and since "Dawson's Creek" comes on The N on Comcast at 5am, I was up until 6 am watching it. I drifted off to sleep around 6:15 and woke up at 6:45am. How brutal is that?

So I jumped up and got the kids ready, took them to school, and was back home by 8:20am. I worked online for a while to take care of some emergency issues. Bear in mind that I haven't eaten anything this entire time. So by the time I get into the office, I'm pretty hungry. I consider going to the gym, but there's too much work to be done and it needs to be done immediately. I "put off" the gym until later in the afternoon.

By the time later in the afternoon rolls around, a last minute group pow-wow meeting is called. By the time the meeting is over, I am FAMISHED.

3pm: Chick-Fil-A sandwich, fries, lemonade
3:30pm Snickers Bar
7pm: Grilled Chicken nachos from Pollo Loco
7:45pm - 2 chocolate cookies

I had a glass of Kiwi flavored juice; no water today. It is 8pm and I can barely keep my eyes open. I have to leave in 15 minutes to drive me and the kids all the way to GA State to pick up my husband from class. We won't be back home until around 9:30pm at which time I will probably crash and burn.

As long as I spend 5 out of 7 days not eating terrible and getting some form of exercise, I'm happy with that.

Road to Fitness and Good Nutrition: Day 1

Here's how my health and fitness went today:

9:30 - pack of sugar-free oatmeal w/ ice cold water

10:30am - ice cold water

11:15 - 12:15pm - up in the gym just workin' on my fitness...lots of room temp water

1:30pm - protein shake, chased by water

3:30pm - 1 tilapia filet and veggies w/ ice cold water

7pm - 1 tilapia filet and veggies

Making it by the skin of my teeth at this point. I'm going to bed at 8pm so that I'm not tempted to eat anything else. Tomorrow, I need to up the resistance training and add some more protein in the AM; hopefully I'll be up early enough to make some egg whites.

Lessons Learned

I don't mind sharing that I am 34 years old as of yesterday afternoon. I look DARN good for my age, and actually consider it bragging to reveal my age. I constantly hear "Wow, you're in your 30's?? Seriously??" I love it, so please keep it up for as long as it's true. :-) :-)

Well you don't live 34 years without making a lot of serious observations about this journey we call life. Here are a few things I have learned throughout my life; these are time-tested truths that I'd like to share with you.

It's fairly easy to tell whose really in your corner. The people that have your back no matter what are consistent. Consistency is key. You know those people that are all giggles and smiles and sharing deep, dark secrets when you're alone? Well, if these people behave differently toward you in the company of others, that's a serious red flag. To me, that screams "I like you for the most part as a person and think you're really nice and/or cool, but the other people that I'm closer to don't like you, or wouldn't approve of me being friends with you." And isn't this how we behaved in high school? Yeah, run like the wind from these people.

The number of friends you have is directly related to how you treat people. If you are nice to people and really care about them, at least 85% of them will return the feeling and behavior. It's simple math, yet some people still get confused by it. They wonder why they lack friends and even long for them. It's easy to wish for fruit during harvest time when we haven't sown any seeds seasons prior. But wishes like this are futile.

The world will move on without you. People can get over you if you give them enough time. If you are difficult to be around, then it's just not worth it, and people will soon learn to adjust to life without you. As painful as it is to cut ties with a friend, spouse, or other loved-one, if you're more trouble than you're worth, people will move on, and the earth will still rotate on its axis, somehow.

Your children will most likely turnout just like you... Not like you WANT to be or who you THINK you are, but who you actually are. So if you're the type of person that's slightly delusional about how you affect others, just watch your kids grow up. You will see your traits come out in them. Good and bad. It's cute, yet can be scary if you are unaware of who you are at this point in your life.

The world is full of followers. Even as adults, people are still waiting on someone else to tell them what to do and how to think. Most people seem to live in the moment and aren't grounded in a solid foundation. We are a superficial group of people, the human race. It's so easy to change someone's mind about something and send them in a different direction when something new comes along that's fresh and exciting.

The more you truly learn in this world, the more you are humbled about how much there is to learn. That's why the people who are really smart are the most patient. They know that there is a vast world out there that they do not know about and are eager to learn more and SHARE what they've learned with others. The people who have learned "just enough" to make them "appear" smarter than others are the ones who just sit comfortably on what they learned and spend much of their time ridiculing others who don't know as much. When someone comes along who knows just as much and even more, they fight to keep this person silenced or made to feel inferior. Happens everyday, unfortunately.

The more you truly learn in this world, the easier it is to distinguish between those who KNOW and those to TALK as if they know. When you are asking someone a question and they keep talking over you and don't give you a chance to even state your question clearly...RUN. Find someone who actually has enough knowledge to be of true assistance to you. This world is so full of people who have gotten where they are NOT because of what they know, but...(see next statement)

It's truly not about what you know in this world, rather, it's about WHO you know. Timeless truth. It's so sad, but SO TRUE. Anyone watch Real Housewives of Atlanta? No? Good, that show sucks, yet is heavily addictive for goodness sakes! The women on this show are living proof of this, if anyone is still confused about why their hard work hasn't reaped the benefits they feel are warranted. (Kim Zolciak, I'm looking at you)

You should ALWAYS be thinking ahead of where you are now. For the first time in my life, I understand what this means, and I have actually been living with this mindset. With a deeper understanding of this (and many of the aforementioned statements) I am very excited about where my life is headed! I'm not so focused on the here and now anymore, and I'm especially done trying to impress those directly in front of me. I've outgrown where I am in my life, like a pair of 3-year old pants that are out of season and have worn inseams. Time to move upward and onward which is the right direction! :-) :-) :-)