Discover Barclay Martin

in Kansas City. This music makes all the stress drain out of my body.

I know to how to procrastinate

Ugh. Must work. Want to procrastinate. It's 8 o'clock and there's several things I should be doing right now instead of writing here. But I have fans. Fans who lovingly check this blog everyday for new posts. So here I sit at my kitchen table chowing down the chocolate chip cookies J.L. bought be as a surprise (he knows the way to my heart).

Things I must get done:
Edit PDFs for Urban Times
Edit copy for Urban Times
Transcribe interview for an article I'm writing for my day job
Write said article

Here's the timeline of my procrastination:
5-Drive home from work
5:45-Get on treadmill (This can't count as procrastination because technically exercise is one of my goals; it just necessarily shouldn't be at the top of my priority list when I have a list of Things I must get done)
6:21-Call sister, proceed to talk for more than an hour
7:32-Call another sister, proceed to talk for 45 minutes
8:08-Eat chocolate chip cookies and wonder how I can waste some more time
8:09-Write this blog entry

Amazing how you can find something to do when you should really be doing something else, but then you can't find anything to do when you're bored.

My favorite things

Got the idea from Chance. I'm not as much of a shopper and packer as she is, so my favorite things list is rather shorter.

Down goes the folic acid

Before you ask, no, I'm not pregnant. No where close. Even the tiniest bit. But maybe next year or the year after or the year after (no, I'm not a procrastinator), with any luck—if everything falls into place with finding a home, work load getting lighter, and all the necessities that a baby requires. I read recently that women of childbearing age should take folic acid before getting pregnant. So I figured I would start now and make it part of my routine. The other part of my preparing for Jessaca to be a mommy (crazy, I know; I must have lost my mind): changing my medication to a once daily shot (ugh!). The current shot I take to maintain my MS is a three-times a week shot, but it's not rated safe by the FDA to take while trying to conceive/early pregnancy. So, just because I can only imagine conception as a pretty stressful time (heh!), and then add to the fact that I would need to change to a more frequent shot, I decided to just do all the ugly stuff now. I'm all about being prepared. The downfall is that my poor skin where I give my shots currently is so sore, that I can only image what doing a shot once a day is going to do to it. Woe is me. Really, I'm lucky. At least there is a medication I can take that is safe. And really, doing a once-daily shot doesn't scare me as much as being a mommy. Me? A mom? Hahahahahahahaha.

The road ahead is a bumpy one

Today, my youngest sis-in-law graduated high school. It was a bittersweet affair for the entire family. After knowing her for more than 9 years (yes, I know, 9 years), she's completely an independent person. I remembered when she would line up her Polly Pockets around the house, grasping her blanket, and asking me to play with her. It's a far cry from the person she has become, and the person she has yet to become. It's so fun to see her transform and grow. When I was her age, I thought I was on top of the world. Lordy (as M.O.M. would say). If only I knew then what I know today. Life is messy, brilliant, and I really need to start enjoying it more.

My goals for enjoying life more:
1. Take more pictures...of everything and everyone. I'm not that comfortable behind the camera, so I tend not to take pictures. Perhaps if I can talk Jonathan into a snazzy new camera, I'll be more inclined to taking pictures.

2. Get out of the house more often. This will be tricky. I'm a homebody and I am very frugal. And I equate getting out of the house with spending money.

3. Spruce up my patio. I need to get outside more often. I think if I put some pretty plants on my patio and my some patio furniture (there's that spending money thing again), I'd be outside everyday. Vitamin D is very healthy.

4. Exercise. This is probably the hardest goal because it means I need to get off this increasing-getting-larger behind. A yoga pass may be essential.

Time flies when you're having fun

The apartment is empty of our great guests. The only evidence that remains that Andy, Chance, and AJ were ever here is the water bottle they forgot. I miss AJ's little voice and giggle, and my listening to my sister's oh-so-exciting conversations in person.

The trip was fun, crazy, and at sometimes a little challenging. It rained everyday we were in Missouri. We drove, and drove, and drove, and drove. Poor AJ probably can't stand the site of his car seat anymore—or Black Beauty for that matter. We ate lots of food (including some evil fast food!), but I did manage to get in homemade chicken pot pie, asian lettuce wraps, and roast, Crock Pot mac 'n' cheese, and mashed potatoes. I've been declared a fabulous cook! I'd say the trip was a success just from that compliment alone.

Got to see M.O.M., who got to see AJ for the first time. It was such a sight to behold watching her take him in and snuggling him up. We also fed the rainbow trout at Bennett Springs State Park hatchery. It was too cute watching AJ throw in fish food pebble at a time. We would have been there all day if Chance and I hadn't throw in a few handfuls ourselves. The upside to the rain was everything was lush and green. My most favorite parts of the trip was holding AJ's hand (it's so tiny, it's almost hard to hold) and watching him give me a sleepy grin.

Apparently the trip is on for next year as well, only this time camping out at Bennett Springs. Bugs, mud, spiders#&151;I think I might have to be busy next year. But for that cute grin of AJ's, I'd get bit by spider. It's worth it.

MOLE!

Got a suspicious looking mole removed from my wrist yesterday. The whole process was quite traumatic. There's several ways a doctor can removed a mole: with a punch tool, burning/freezing it, or slicing it off with a scalpel. Guess what method doc used on me? Yup, a scalpel.

They numbed my wrist with a shot. Which wasn't too bad, except it's the kind of shot where they slowly inject the magical numbing medication. So it started to hurt after a few seconds. Like a never-ending shot. When the doc started cutting, it just felt like she was drawing on my arm. It was such a weird feeling. That's when I started feeling very quesy.

"Jessaca, you doing okay?"

"Yeah, I think it's just nerves."

"Well, we're stitching you now."

So after what I think was three stitches (I was too afraid to look), they let me lay there. And I passed the hurl stage. The whole process made me realize that as I've aged how sensitive I've become to blood and stuff. The wound is still under wraps because I'm too afraid to look at it.

Oh the joys of taking care of yourself. I did after all volunteer the information that I was concerned about the state of the mole. It had began to change shapes. So, if you really think about it, I did this to myself. I volunteered to get my skin sliced open.