My niece Sissy showing off her new bike pedaling skills. Who can resist anyone this cute? 

Old dairy barn on West Medical Lake, about 20 minutes from my house. 

I like where I'm at thanks...

I've been thinking a lot this week about Gabrielle's regrets question. Sonji posted some excellent wisdom today. I think I could easily become a Sonji groupie. Here's the part that really struck me: Everything works out the way it is supposed to , maybe just not the way that YOU want it to.

I've had some fairly ugly tussles with regrets this spring as I was searching for a new job and not finding one and feeling yucky about being almost 35 and working in a dead-end job. My life has not followed the path I had all planned out when I was in high school. But every time regret and I had a wrasslin' match, I ended up with the same thought: despite the yuck job, I wouldn't want to change where I'm at right now. I love living in my lovely blue house with my excellent husband and my superfantastic teenager and my funny gigantic cat. It wasn't what I planned, but so what? It's good.

So yeah, maybe somewhere in an alternate universe, there's a Nikki who made different choices and she's happily wandering the earth right now. But the poor thing missed seeing the amazing glow of joy on AshLee's face after she won the 400 at state a few weeks ago. I wouldn't change ANYTHING if it meant I had to give up seeing that awesome sight. Get thee behind me, regrets! Everything has worked out the way it was supposed to.

Another postcard for the Turning 35 exchange 

I found some nice batiks at Pacific Crescent Quilting, then headed to Michaels, where I found a whole pile of stamps for $1 each. I also got a box of Plaid Decorator Glazes for $1. No clue how these will work on paper or fabric, but figured I can't go wrong at that price. 

Ugh. This is the 4th background I've tried. At least the value is right this time, but the color is yuck. None of the other choices are appealing. Lucky for me Dave wants to go in to town to play guitars. That means I get to go to the quilt shop. It needs more of the round flowers in front too, but I can't concentrate on that until I fix the background. 

The Internet Is a Good Thing - Reason #947

The internet is a good thing because when you are jolted awake at 3:46 a.m. with the thought that your new employer is going to need to see your social security card and you have NO FREAKING IDEA where it is, you can get up and log on to the SSA website to read up on the process of getting a replacement card. This will calm you down enough to go back to sleep.

Then you can wake up at a more normal hour, go downstairs and walk straight to the drawer where your social security card is tucked away, safe and sound, just waiting for you to get a new job so you'll need it again.

Yeah, I need a better system for keeping track of this stuff...

Got a New Gig

Yay, I got a new job! Yay, I gave my notice yesterday! Yay!

I've been quietly looking for something new for about 6 months. A "day job" is my reality right now, at least until we get AshLee through college. And I'm fine with that. What I wasn't fine with was continuing to work in an environment that is growing increasingly toxic. It's sad really, because this used to be a really great place to work. Unfortunately, the current management seems to view employees as a necessary evil at best and an adversary at worst. But enough of the yuckiness of being here, because at the end of next week I'm off to greener pastures.

I don't think it's a coincidence that I got a job offer on Friday afternoon and suddenly on Sunday I was able to make an 18" by 22" quilt after 6 months of not being able to make anything larger than a piece of typing paper. Yep, the icky creative block coincides with the stress and uncertainty of the job search. Add in a healthy dose of feeling like a dope for staying in this job for as long as I did and it's a wonder I made anything.

It will be a big change and I'm expecting it will take a while to adjust, but at least I feel like I'm moving forward now instead of being stuck in limbo. Plus, the new job is 35 hours/week instead of 40, so I'll have an extra hour every morning. Yay!