Making A Few Changes Around Here

I'm changing things up around here a bit. They're mostly blog related changes. But there are some life in general type changes as well.

This blog began it's life as solely a digiscrap blog. A place where I could post all my digital scrapbook pages and such. Over time, it has evolved into being my everything blog.

I still digiscrap, but not as obsessively as I did when I started this blog. I haven't made a template in ages. Honestly, I haven't really wanted to. It's easy to turn one of my pages into a template (Photoshop is seriously The Awesome). It really doesn't take much time. But it does take some time. Time that I'm not keen on spending right now.

Since IkeaGoddess stopped posting her freebies list, my downloads literally cut in half. As such, I don't feel that motivated to make them. If there's a particular LO you really want a template of, let me know and I'll throw it together. But generally speaking, the whole template making is on hold indefinitely. I may randomly make one; who knows. Maybe for a CT blog train or something.

As such, the blog title is no longer that relevant. I post about so many things now. I don't know how to change the name and keep my archives (LoLo, help me out here?). I haven't looked into it at all yet. I have no idea what I'd change the name to if I did anyway. I'm welcome to suggestions.

If you have a suggestion, please comment. But if your suggestion involves our last name or any other kind of personal info, please email or Facebook me. If you put it in a comment, I won't publish it. I'm sure you understand. Just sayin'.

In other bloggy news, I'm loving this whole write-about-whatever-I-want thing. I used to do that on livejournal all the time. Here, I've mostly stuck to digiscrapping, kid updates, and Project 365 pics. I'm broadening my blog scope. There's more to me (and my family) than that. This is becoming more and more our family blog. And my introspective-rambling-about-whatever's-on-my-mind blog. I like it that way.

I will write about religious things. I hope you don't mind, but...well, it is my blog. I can write about whatever I want. Ish. Obviously I'm not going to publicly rant about people close to me ticking me off.

Ok so that's not entirely true; I just did that in the previous post. You get the idea.

But I will write about some spiritual things. If you don't want to read it, you don't have to. It's entirely up to you. I'm just throwing that fact out there.

I'll likely have some mommy soap box posts as well. Every mom has them, after all. Mine include breastfeeding and car seat safety. Again, read what you want.

If you get offended by something I write on my own blog...it's kinda your own fault. Not to be rude, but if you choose to read it and then choose to be offended by it, you are responsible for those choices. I try to write in a non-offensive nice way, but I can't possibly please everyone.

Politics, on the other hand, I will not touch here. No way. Not gonna open that can of worms. All politicians are worms anyway...

I think that just about covers the blog related changes. I'm basically giving myself the freedom to write whatever I want. I had that before, but I felt obligated to write updates on my kids every single time. Hence the ridiculously long posts and the large time gaps between posts. My hope is to post more frequently and not have every post be a super long novel that nobody but me wants to read. I tend to write a lot, so that length thing? It's definitely an issue. Hopefully I don't bore everyone.

At least I have a firm grip on the language, right? I should since, you know, that's what my degree is in ;)

As for other changes, John has made a few school related changes. Nothing super drastic like switching schools or a major change (I'd totally freak out if that happened - but I know it won't). No, we're just going to be here a semester longer than previously anticipated. He planned to graduate in December 2011, but now it will be April 2012. But it's really not that big of a deal since we were planning to stay here until then anyway. The grad school we reeeeaally want to go to starts in May and there's not much point in moving until we know for sure if we're in or not.

I'm not really a fan of being here another winter, but since we weren't planning to move until April/Mayish 2012 anyway, it works out ok. This will actually be easier for us as a family. It's less homework stress on John to stretch that last bit of school out. It gives him a chance to retake statistics to get a better grasp of it (he must be a glutton for punishment). And it means we'll get financial aid for one more semester.

In other school news, John really likes his auditing class. A lot. It's funny; when he first started his accounting major, he thought he'd go into taxes.

And then he took that first tax class.

Definitely not. The stress, the frustration, the ever-changing tax laws...no thanks. He even thought of changing his major back to business. He didn't, and now he's glad he stuck with accounting. But he didn't know what he wanted to do with it.

Every time he said that, I suggested auditing. He hadn't taken the class yet, so he didn't know that much about what it was like. All the same, he had a lot of hesitations based on what he'd heard about it. Travel, liability, etc. But now that he's in the class, he loves it. He thinks that's what he wants to do now.

I'm so happy for him. I'm glad he's found something in his major he enjoys enough to as a career. It's comforting for him to have more direction than simply getting the degree and going to grad school.

Next step? Find an internship, hopefully for this summer. And since he's leaning towards auditing, it won't matter that it's not during tax season. We don't want to move for an internship. With 2 small children that would be more hassle than it's worth. So our options are local, or...back home. If we did the back home route, we'd keep our apartment here and simply hang out in my parents' basement for 4 months (or however long the internship is for). Uh...I have yet to mention that idea to them. And they read this blog. So, uh, consider yourself informed?

And yes, Mom, Dad, I know you want pictures. I will post them. I promise. Hopefully tomorrow? But...um...don't get too mad if I don't follow through. Because...well, let's be honest here. I probably won't ;)

That pretty much covers all the changes around here. I'm improving on my scripture reading. I'm trying to exercise more. I want to look into exercise videos. Something effective that I can do at home with my kids running/crawling around at my feet. Any recommendations? Now that the weather is turning cold and yucky I won't go on walks as much.

I'm dreading winter. Absolutely dreading it. I hate how cold it is here. I get so sick of snow after 5 months of it. We've had such a wonderful summer and fall. I'm not emotionally ready for the cold. I know it's coming soon. Too soon. So, can we please postpone it a little longer? Please?

My attitude about this place has changed. When I graduated from college 5.5 years ago, I swore I'd never live here again. Apparently Someone had something else in mind. At first, I mostly laughed and scoffed at the irony. I still do. But now? I actually like it here. Much more than I realized I do. It came on gradually. Do I want to spend my life here? Heck no. But it's a good place to be for the time being. I'll miss it when we do eventually leave.

I'm sure much of my attitude change has to do with the fact that I have a car. And that I actually like all my roommates. I'm pretty sure they like me, too ;) Plus, when I was a student, I only spent fall and winter here...which basically translates into normal winter and butt-freezing-cold winter. Being here in the summer has definitely helped my attitude. All the family-friendly activities have, too. Especially now that I have kids.

All the same, we still want to live back home. That's not changing. Ever. We want to be where our family is. We both spent most of our lives there. It's home to us.

I'm trying to balance things. Some things I'm doing great on. Others...not so much. Yummy planned out meals? Doing great. Cleaning? Eh...not so much. It's hard to get both the motivation and the energy to clean at the same. I look at the mess, get discouraged, and end up doing something else entirely.

But hey, Hyrum's Halloween costume turned out super cute and Emma's dollhouse is almost done.

Now if I could somehow magically get (and keep) my house clean...where's Mary Poppins when I need her? I think homes should come with a self-cleaning button. Wouldn't that be nice? It's probably on the money tree. The ever-elusive money tree. I wish I had a backyard to plant it in.