Lists

I'm a list person. I make lists for grocery shopping, packing for trips, recording books I've read and want to read, and even keeping track of birthdays. I have lists titled "Places I Want to Visit", "Children's Names I Like", and "Names of Sara and Jeshua's Future Children," on which I keep track of obscure and ridiculous sounding Bible names to share with them.

I find these discarded lists all over my house, at the bottom of my purse, in coat pockets, on random pages in notebooks. Today I found a document on my computer with a fabulous list. I present to you the document saved as "husband qualifications."

Who is the Mr. Britney Smith?

			Mandatory qualifications He must…	Almost mandatory He should…	It would be nice if He could…
			Be a committed Christian seeking to honor God with his life	Have some sort of post high school education	Get along really well with my brother
			Be open to full time missions/ministry	Be on good terms with his immediate family	Not love sports more than he loves me
			Love kids and teenagers	Not be shy	Fix things around the house
			Have the heart of a servant	Be self-controlled with money	Play an instrument
			Be willing to take a stand for what he believes—even to me	Volunteer to do household cleaning or help me with it	Have parents who really like me
			Be easy to talk to (at least for me)	Be laid back	Sing well
			Make me laugh regularly	Be a mostly organized person	Speak more than one language
			Have spiritual gifts that are complimentary to mine	Have lived on his own for at least a year
			Pray with me frequently
			Be liked by my friends
			Not be uptight
			Not drink alcohol or smoke
			Be intelligent
			Not be clingy/dependent on me
			Meet Titus 1:6-9 qualifications
			Be decisive
			Treat all people with dignity

Helpfulness is Subjective

I wonder if it's ever occurred to my family that their comments about my marital status are unwanted. It seems my family has taken it upon themselves to remind me, at every opportunity apparently, that I lack both a husband and children. Last month my brother made me cry when so rudely pointed out my biological clock is ticking and I should really find a boyfriend soon if I ever hope to find kids.

Add to that my mother's new tactic. Each time I've seen dear ole mom in the past month, which has been more than normal, she's made comments about not having grandchildren, like I'm not aware or something. She throws out phrases like "If I ever have grandchildren some day..." and "If I had grandkids, I would..." and "You know, I'd really like to have grandkids at some point." It's almost as if she thinks saying these things is really going to speed along the process of finding Mr. Right, getting married, and having babies. I might understand her need to point out my failure to provide grandchildren, if I had been dating someone for a long time and was stalling a wedding. As it is, she's just making me mad.

If dealing with my mother's digs about my singleness wasn't enough, my grandpa weighed in on the situation tonight at my cousin's wedding. He informed me that the idea of me getting married is pretty much hopeless. He boldly stated he doesn't believe I'll get married in his lifetime. Furthermore, he anticipates my 19 year old cousin will be the next one to get married. Gee, thanks a million, Grandpa.

My older cousin, bless her heart, was much more positive when she mentioned my singleness. She did not badger me or reveal her doubts about my ability to make it to the altar. She actually asked me if I wanted to be the next one to get married and then encouraged me when I answered in the affirmative. Only if she could introduce me to Mr. Right would she be more helpful.

Goals by Category

This morning I was thinking about the direction of my life and evaluating my goals. I decided to break my goals into categories in order to help me prioritize and plan more effectively the next steps I'll take. Because the last two goals will probably take the most effort, I think it would be a good idea to start with them.

Short-Term Goals
-> pay off my students loans, making myself debt-free
-> finish my Christmas project in time to give it as a present
-> travel to Seattle to visit friends

Long-Term Goals
-> become fluent in a second language
-> live in another country for a year or two
-> fall in love, get married, and have babies (I'd really like to move this to the short term list!)

I-Can't-Believe-I'm-27-and-Still-Working-On-These Goals
-> be able to go three consecutive days without gossiping
-> clean the bathroom on a regular basis
-> return library materials before the overdue fines kick in
-> remember to take the recycling bin to the curb on Friday mornings

Delusional Highly Ambitious Goals
-> get myself invited to one of Pioneer Woman's parties at the Lodge
-> convince TheBigShowatUD I am the woman of his dreams and he needs me

Any ideas for steps I can take to accomplish my Highly Ambitious goals?

It's official

I have an internet crush. *sigh*

American Education Week

"Better than a thousand days of diligent study
is one day with a great teacher."

--Japanese Proverb

Just my 'magination

Ever since my friend Haley accidentally walked into my neighbors' house on Bunco night, I've had the feeling my neighbors have been avoiding me. They don't ignore me all the time, but often enough that I started to wonder what I did to irritate them. Sometimes I would tell myself it was just my imagination. I mean, really, what could I have done to make them mad? I don't socialize with them a lot, but neither do I throw parties, have junk in my yard, or keep my house in disrepair. Despite all those points in my favor, I frequently felt I was being snubbed.

Tonight I was cooking my dinner when Dax barked at the door. I didn't hear a knock, but I checked the door because he seemed so sure of himself. Sure enough the neighbor is standing on my sidewalk. She awkwardly explained that she wants to talk to me about something, and then proceeded to air her complaints. Apparently "the girl who comes over during the day sometimes" leaves Dax outside barking for long periods of time. The neighbor made it clear she didn't want to be a complainer, but it's hard to get her youngest son to sleep when Dax is barking. She said she didn't come over and complain when Dax was barking until 1 am (she led me to believe this was recent, but I can't think of a time I've been out that late). And she didn't come and complain when the sprinkler was full force on her car, but she felt like she just had to say something now. And maybe there is a collar I could use on Dax (NOT going to happen).

So it really wasn't my imagination all those times I thought the neighbors were ignoring me.

Yummy

Before Parent-Teacher Conferences started at noon today, I made pumpkin bars. I bought a can of pumpkin some time last week, and I've been craving pumpkin bars ever since. My Betty Crocker cookbook failed me once again (Betty rarely has the recipes I need), so I turned to the internet for a little help. The first link on my Google search was for Real Mom Kitchen. I haven't taken a lot of time to check out her website, but at first glance it looks like this lady has some great recipes. Anyway, here's the link to the pumpkin bar recipe I used. It even has the cream cheese recipe on the same page, and explains how she puts chocolate chips on half for a little bit of variety.