So I’m not off to the greatest start with this blog – I blame it on the holiday busyness. Maybe I’ll make posting more regularly my New Year’s resolution this year (of course that means this blog -- like many past diets and exercise plans -- is pretty much doomed!)
Life in the Savat household has been very busy and cheerful lately. I love the holidays and this year is no exception. Jeanne and I braved the stores on Black Friday and had a blast. Since then I have kept busy with shopping (I am nearly finished with my list already!) decorating the entire house, completing the Christmas cards and wrapping the gifts. I can’t believe how much I already have finished, which means I’ll have plenty of time to bake cookies in my new convection oven!
Last weekend Allen’s dad and Freda came up for a nice visit. We kept them very busy with a trip to the St. Louis Mills Outlet Mall (which I had never been too), going out to eat and a fun night out at a local dueling piano bar (that was a lot of fun). Allen’s dad is one of the funniest people you’ll ever meet. He always has a new joke to share and he usually starts them off with “did I tell you about the guy who…” so the punch line is even more unexpected.
In addition to the general holiday busyness, I am also busy preparing to teach next semester! Teaching has always been a part of my distant future plans, but this opportunity was too good to pass up. I’m going to be teaching an intro to public relations class at SLU. It’s a junior/senior level class so hopefully the students will be really engaged and interested in the material.
I met with the former teacher yesterday to get all of the classroom materials, but now I have just one month to get my lesson plans (and my act!) together. I’ve already had a nightmare about teaching (I was dressed in the dream, but that's about the only thing I had going for me!) Fears aside, I'm really excited to get in the classroom and see if this could be a good fit for me.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thanksgiving Blessings
When I started this blog I didn’t intend for it to be sappy and yucky! But for some reason I have been in a particularly sappy mood lately, so please humor me :)
Thanksgiving is just around the corner, which got me thinking today about all the things for which I’m thankful this year. With the economy in the gutter, just having a job and a roof over our heads is a blessing.
But I’m fortunate to have so many more blessings in my life. I have great friends who I can share great times and secrets with. Recently we have been doing a lot together – everything from club hopping to a New Kids on the Block concert (seriously) and I have had a blast with each and every one of them. The best thing about my friends is that they’ve seen me at my worst, helped me through it and then laughed with me (or at me) when it was over. Hopefully they know they can count on me to do the same
Of course I also have an awesome family that only got bigger and better when I married Allen. There are few things I enjoy more than hanging out with my family or having ALL 10 of my younger cousins over for a slumber party. I realize not everyone has this and I am so thankful for each and every one of them. I’m also thankful that I will be able to share them with my children some day.
But more than anything or anyone else, I am thankful for Allen. Over the last five years, Allen has not only showed me how intense love can be, but how to love someone completely with no exceptions. My favorite days are the days where I spend my time with him playing around, teasing, relaxing, working together – whatever. It doesn’t matter, because as long as I have Allen everything is OK. So when I count my blessings, I count him twice!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is just around the corner, which got me thinking today about all the things for which I’m thankful this year. With the economy in the gutter, just having a job and a roof over our heads is a blessing.
But I’m fortunate to have so many more blessings in my life. I have great friends who I can share great times and secrets with. Recently we have been doing a lot together – everything from club hopping to a New Kids on the Block concert (seriously) and I have had a blast with each and every one of them. The best thing about my friends is that they’ve seen me at my worst, helped me through it and then laughed with me (or at me) when it was over. Hopefully they know they can count on me to do the same
Of course I also have an awesome family that only got bigger and better when I married Allen. There are few things I enjoy more than hanging out with my family or having ALL 10 of my younger cousins over for a slumber party. I realize not everyone has this and I am so thankful for each and every one of them. I’m also thankful that I will be able to share them with my children some day.
But more than anything or anyone else, I am thankful for Allen. Over the last five years, Allen has not only showed me how intense love can be, but how to love someone completely with no exceptions. My favorite days are the days where I spend my time with him playing around, teasing, relaxing, working together – whatever. It doesn’t matter, because as long as I have Allen everything is OK. So when I count my blessings, I count him twice!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Analytical thinking
While Allen loves children and is a devoted big brother in the Big Brother Big Sister program, the idea of having a baby is a little bit too much for him, which has made for some pretty comical conversations.
It’s the engineer in him, really. Babies are not “practical” – his words, not mine! They don’t do anything, they cost a lot of money and they are a lot of work.
The more he tries to convince me that his reasoning is sound, the more I laugh and anticipate how he’s going to melt when we have a baby and he holds him or her for the first time. There’s not a doubt in my mind that Allen is going to be an unbelievably great dad. I’ve known this from the beginning and it’s one of the things that attracted me to him. He’s going to be the first to brag when our baby “smiles” (aka passes gas), rolls over and laughs. And he’s going to have so much fun teaching him or her how to ride a bike or drive mommy nuts :)
So in the meantime, I just laugh when he tells me that he’s not really interested in kids until they are old enough to do something – you know, like 10! Boy is he in for a world of surprise.
It’s the engineer in him, really. Babies are not “practical” – his words, not mine! They don’t do anything, they cost a lot of money and they are a lot of work.
The more he tries to convince me that his reasoning is sound, the more I laugh and anticipate how he’s going to melt when we have a baby and he holds him or her for the first time. There’s not a doubt in my mind that Allen is going to be an unbelievably great dad. I’ve known this from the beginning and it’s one of the things that attracted me to him. He’s going to be the first to brag when our baby “smiles” (aka passes gas), rolls over and laughs. And he’s going to have so much fun teaching him or her how to ride a bike or drive mommy nuts :)
So in the meantime, I just laugh when he tells me that he’s not really interested in kids until they are old enough to do something – you know, like 10! Boy is he in for a world of surprise.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
I'm not too good for my home!
I’ve always been a social butterfly, but the last few weeks have been ridiculous. I’ve left Allen home alone more times than I care to count to attend meetings, appointments and girls-nights-out. Yea, I’ve had a lot of fun, but I’ve noticed lately that it’s wearing on me. For the last several days I’ve woken up with a headache (that’s generally lasted most of the day) and I’ve been craaaby!
Well yesterday I finally said enough is enough and I skipped the meeting I was supposed to attend last night. Instead, I made dinner for my hubby, went shopping for a dryer with him and then went to bed a 9 O’CLOCK (I know – who goes to bed at 9?) And then the most amazing thing happened – I woke up this morning feeling happy and sans the headache! So I figure the moral of this story is that being away from Allen too much makes me sick :)
Well yesterday I finally said enough is enough and I skipped the meeting I was supposed to attend last night. Instead, I made dinner for my hubby, went shopping for a dryer with him and then went to bed a 9 O’CLOCK (I know – who goes to bed at 9?) And then the most amazing thing happened – I woke up this morning feeling happy and sans the headache! So I figure the moral of this story is that being away from Allen too much makes me sick :)
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Reliving a piece of my childhood
First concerts are a big deal. Mine was New Kids on the Block in 1990. My mom took me along with my friend Libby and her mom. I had a major crush on the New Kids and seeing them in concert definitely ranks up there in my top childhood memories. That night my mom was the coolest and she danced and screamed like a maniac with me, making the night even more special. The next day I proudly wore my concert T-shirt to school and bragged to all my friends!
Last night I had the opportunity to relive that memory. NKOTB recently reunited and my girlfriends and I bought tickets to their reunion tour. I was skeptical going into it, but it didn’t take long for me to start screaming along and feel like a kid again. And let me tell you, 18 years later … they still have the RIGHT STUFF!
What was your first concert?
Last night I had the opportunity to relive that memory. NKOTB recently reunited and my girlfriends and I bought tickets to their reunion tour. I was skeptical going into it, but it didn’t take long for me to start screaming along and feel like a kid again. And let me tell you, 18 years later … they still have the RIGHT STUFF!
What was your first concert?
Monday, November 10, 2008
Just an average night in the Savat household.
For those of you who know us well, it should come as no surprise that Allen and I are very playful with each other. A day rarely goes by without one of us chasing, tickling or “getting” the other in some way or another. On the brightside, we're always laughing and having a good time. Of course, the downside is that this also can have unintentional consequence :) Here’s what happened last night.
Ever since I started spending the night at Allen’s (if you’re reading this Dad, of course I mean when I moved in) we’ve had this ongoing struggle to NOT be the one to turn the light off at bedtime. The general rule has been that the last one in bed has to do it, which has resulted in some very “cat-like” attempts to jump in to bed as fast as possible. That issue was resolved, or so I thought, when we bought lamps for both nightstands last year.
However, always the opportunist, Allen has managed to find other ways to torture me at night. Now, he leaves the lamp on just long enough to get me to turn off the main light. Then he quickly turns off the lamp and usually gets on my side of the bed to “get me” when I get in.
Last night he was in a particularly playful mood and I knew what was coming. So I turned on my lamp and the office light (which is close to my side of the bed) and then turned off the main light. Sure enough, he turned off both lamps on me. So I got the bright idea to turn off the office light while holding the lamp, but I pulled it too far and ended up unplugging it. My only other option was to quickly turn off the office light and JUMP into bed faster than he could turn off his lamp.
Unfortunately, I wasn't too "cat-like" last night and the sound of my head hitting the headboard sounded a little like a cartoon “boing.”
Our kids are going to think we're CRAZY!
Ever since I started spending the night at Allen’s (if you’re reading this Dad, of course I mean when I moved in) we’ve had this ongoing struggle to NOT be the one to turn the light off at bedtime. The general rule has been that the last one in bed has to do it, which has resulted in some very “cat-like” attempts to jump in to bed as fast as possible. That issue was resolved, or so I thought, when we bought lamps for both nightstands last year.
However, always the opportunist, Allen has managed to find other ways to torture me at night. Now, he leaves the lamp on just long enough to get me to turn off the main light. Then he quickly turns off the lamp and usually gets on my side of the bed to “get me” when I get in.
Last night he was in a particularly playful mood and I knew what was coming. So I turned on my lamp and the office light (which is close to my side of the bed) and then turned off the main light. Sure enough, he turned off both lamps on me. So I got the bright idea to turn off the office light while holding the lamp, but I pulled it too far and ended up unplugging it. My only other option was to quickly turn off the office light and JUMP into bed faster than he could turn off his lamp.
Unfortunately, I wasn't too "cat-like" last night and the sound of my head hitting the headboard sounded a little like a cartoon “boing.”
Our kids are going to think we're CRAZY!
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
A night I’ll tell my children and grandchildren about someday
As a social liberal, I’ve always been envious of my parent’s generation. They grew up during a time where young people believed in important causes like ending the war or women’s rights and they did something about it. They marched, they protested, they listened to Beatles’ music, they came together.
I, on the other hand, grew up in a generation that can be pretty much summed up by John Mayer’s song “Waiting on the World to Change.” Sure we see injustices in the world, but we haven’t done much to change them. Maybe that’s because we haven’t believed we could.
More than once this year, though, I have experienced moments that gave me insight into what it must have felt like to grow up in the 60s and 70s. I have been in awe of my generation and my sister’s generation as we came together, much like our parents did, to fight for change and to rock the vote! :)
But no moment was as powerful as Tuesday, Nov. 4, when we elected Barack Obama – the first African American president – by a landslide!
What’s most impressive to me is how he was elected. Sure, some people voted for him because of the color of his skin and some voted for him despite it. But many, many more people (myself included) voted for him because he was the best candidate, which had nothing to do with the color of his skin. And that – my friends – is real change.
Today I am full of hope. The enormity of this election means even more to me as I plan and pray to bring children into the world. I hope that their generation will be the first to truly see beyond race and gender and instead focus on what unites us.
Of course I realize that racism, sexism and all the other injustices will not end today. But this morning I have this renewed, overwhelming belief that YES WE CAN! Thank you Obama. Thank you America.
I, on the other hand, grew up in a generation that can be pretty much summed up by John Mayer’s song “Waiting on the World to Change.” Sure we see injustices in the world, but we haven’t done much to change them. Maybe that’s because we haven’t believed we could.
More than once this year, though, I have experienced moments that gave me insight into what it must have felt like to grow up in the 60s and 70s. I have been in awe of my generation and my sister’s generation as we came together, much like our parents did, to fight for change and to rock the vote! :)
But no moment was as powerful as Tuesday, Nov. 4, when we elected Barack Obama – the first African American president – by a landslide!
What’s most impressive to me is how he was elected. Sure, some people voted for him because of the color of his skin and some voted for him despite it. But many, many more people (myself included) voted for him because he was the best candidate, which had nothing to do with the color of his skin. And that – my friends – is real change.
Today I am full of hope. The enormity of this election means even more to me as I plan and pray to bring children into the world. I hope that their generation will be the first to truly see beyond race and gender and instead focus on what unites us.
Of course I realize that racism, sexism and all the other injustices will not end today. But this morning I have this renewed, overwhelming belief that YES WE CAN! Thank you Obama. Thank you America.
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