Sometimes when I feel sad I look at this picture. It makes me feel a little better.

The state of life in the Park household

I realize that I'm actually the only contributor to this blog. I also realize that if Josh were to post things as well, his attitude would be much happier than mine is sometimes. I do tend to complain. He doesn't complain very often.

I don't want to be one of those people who constantly complains about every little thing that happens. In fact, those people bother me. A lot. I've unfriended people on Facebook because of perpetual complaints about every little thing that goes wrong. I think they want pity, which is something I want sometimes too. But I like to think that I don't inform the world of my pity-party incessantly.

I do try to be positive. And maybe I am. I just don't always feel like I am. But in my pseudo-positive spirit, I will list (as per my favorite way of informing) the state of my (or 'our', if you still consider this a blog about both us Parks) life:

- Christmas tree still up. Josh says its fine, as long as we don't have it up in February still. It does look nice, though.
- We have learned that maybe it's not such a good idea to pay our bills earlier than normal...
- I've also learned how much easier picking an outfit can be when you can look at everything on hangers (hangars?) instead of digging through the pile on the chair.
- Choosing a week before the end of a term to try a body-detoxifying-cleanse was not helpful to the mental state of yours truly. Josh says girls have more psycho-emotional attachments to food. It's possible. When was the last time you saw a guy drowning his sorrows in a bowl of ice cream?
- Science fair projects were due yesterday. I gave students the weekend without penalty if they needed more time. I still got many diva parents complaining about it. If you didn't like my timeline for the projects then speak up when I handed out the schedule at back-to-school night (which was BEFORE school started in the Fall). I could go on, but that would ruin my effort at staying positive. I did get a lot of feedback on how I should do it next time. That's a positive way to look at those novel-length complaints.
- Josh has begun his last semester of school. His classes are all at night. At least I won't feel bad about working until 7:00 if he's not home to be with.
- New church time: 11:00!!!! This one I don't even have to try and put a positive spin on- it's already great that I get to sleep in more.
- New Sunday School runts to teach. It's nice to have a fresh start with new kids, and it's nice to have a new program that makes me feel like we are actually having a spiritual experience, rather than a babysitting wrangle. And I get to teach 12 year olds six days a week.
- Mom and Dad are doing great work over in England. We Skype. But it still feels like another year without them will take an eternity's amount of time.
- When enough people ask me if I'm pregnant, I get a lot of motivation to eat healthy and exercise more.
- The blizzards have made the mountains look pretty, and give us a chance to use our four-wheel drive. We love our X-Terra.
- I only have to teach for four days this coming week. Friday is off, and even though I will be going in to work that day (for end of term grades and prepping), it will still feel like a four-day weekend.
- I get to become a better clogger because I have to know all the pro-level solos in order to keep my spot in my favorite team dance.
- I have a handsome husband who loves me even when I complain or am stressed (so nice of him to put up with my laziness and lack of motivation too)...

I guess some of that list was not so positive. I tried. And having written it, I find myself feeling more optimistic about everything.

That's something, right?

Lately...

This is what we've been doing. In our small amounts of free time.

Snow!

We love the snow.

Soy Sauce!

So this one time, we ordered sushi takeout from our second-favorite local sushi dive and Josh ripped his soy sauce packet open just at the right angle to squirt right into my eyeball.

It burned. And my eye was brown for a bit. But the sushi was still worth it.

My life as a teacher post

I have to read/teach this sinfully boring book in my reading class. There is a minstrel in the story named John-go-in-the-Wynd. He's also a messenger. My students were trying to come up with some kind of combo name for him... Messenstrel, minger.... The best they came up with was...

Menstrual.

Awesome.

We're ready to sleep

When I was a student, I came to a point (as most overly busy students do) when I didn't want to do school anymore. I would get brain-overload and stress build-up and kind of just give up. I never had the willpower to muscle through the last couple weeks of school. Hence, my grades were just ok. I was a normal student, but not a great one. The end of the semester was just too monumental for me, I guess.

Fast forward to my life now. Maybe being a teacher is too similar to being a student. I have a mere ten days left til Christmas break, and I want to just lay in bed, watch Project Runway and Drop Dead Diva (introduced to me by my sister. Sorry, Janet. I kind of blame you for my determination's demise), clean the house and play the piano.

I guess some things will never change.