My Haircut Makes Me Look Like a Mohenjo-Daron

Aly: Mommy, have you seen my dinosaur?
Mommy: Dinosaur? I don't think you have one of those, Aly. What does it look like?
(Using arm motions to explain)
Aly: Well, he's big... And round.... And he's GOING TO GET YOU! RAWR!

Make a Little Birdhouse in Your Soul

Earlier and earlier these days we are required to know what we want to do in life. For those who achieve higher education, junior year seems to be the deadline... otherwise you may not pass Go, you may not collect $200. In high school I didn't know what I wanted, all I knew is that I wanted to get out of Moselle/Ellisville and attend a Christian school. At William Carey I flipped from theater to history to education to....nothing. Finally I had to sit down with my advisor and make a decision. I wanted to pass Go, to collect that $200, so I let others make the decision for me. I remembered all the times people had mentioned speech pathology to me, so I went with that. Luckily speech pathology is a career that begins at a graduate degree, so I was able to choose a liberal arts degree and worry about my career path later. I chose English, because literature is one of my passions and I'm good at the subject. Easy choice.

The first trimester of my senior year I did all that was expected of a good soon-to-be graduate student: I visited the university of my choice (University of Memphis), shadowed a speech pathologist, bought the GRE book, aced both of the Praxis(es?i?), planned to double-minor in Spanish and Education leaving me a back-up plan. Something didn't seem right though. I wasn't enthused about my future, just hopeful that I would become more interested as time went by. Unfortunatly came the adverse effect. I let the GRE sign-up date pass me by, dropped the education minor after a few classes (horr.i.ble), and graduated with my shiny liberal arts degree and nothing to do with it. English is a good major, don't get me wrong, but it needs something else to make it whole, i.e. business, education, journalism.

Since then I've been coasting along again, letting the decisions for my career future wait. I'm going to stay with the kids until they're in school, we decided. We've been focusing on what Matt wants to do, which is still undecided. My career/future/life other than family became easier to set aside as I became depressed. In the moments that I would think of what I wanted to do, nothing came to mind. I would mention publishing to others, joke about owning a bookstore.

Today I realized our plan of waiting until they were both in school wasn't going to pan out easily. I flipped through Monster.com, finding absolutely nothing that would justify me leaving my girls. I don't want to work to pay for daycare, and I don't want to work in a job that would leave me more stressed than I am now. Monster then asked me to write what my dream job would be. My first, most truthful instinct was 'anywhere that surrounded me with books.' Most people would probably laugh at that, but it gave me an epiphany. I've always wanted to work in a library. Some of my fondest childhood memories are at the Hattiesburg Library. As I started researching librarians, a certainty came over me, one that I've only felt a few times in my life. I found that my degree is a good, recommended stepping stone to a Masters of Library Science, the median annual earnings are definitely something I can justify, and there are other career paths I can follow other than a librarian with the MLS, such as archivist, curator, museum technician, the list goes on. I also found that USM offers a Masters of Library and Information Science, which can be obtained completely online if I choose, and also offers dual Masters of Library and Anthropology, or Library and History, which greatly interest me. I also found that if I so choose I could go further and even get a PhD... something I would most likely not attempt but is nice to have as an option.

So, I'm excited. I have a new plan in mind, which is to try and get a part-time job at a local library, to ensure that this is something I want to pursue. Then, work towards getting a Masters. I finally feel like there is a goal for me, something I can do and will be passionate about. No more floundering and letting time go by. Let the librarian mocking begin.

Mentionables

Although Aly is not my favorite person at the moment, with her incessant whining since she got better from her infection, there have been a few moments where the words coming out of her mouth weren't beginning with 'I want...' I have to document them to keep my sanity.

door closes in hallway
Aly: Mommy, be very quiet! My baby is sleeping.
Mommy: Where is your baby?
Aly: She's in Lorelei's room.
Mommy deduces Lorelei is not the aforementioned baby when squeals are heard coming down the hall.
Aly: Shh, Lorelei! My baby is SLEEPING.
Aly: Mommy, I need a bottle. Baby is thirsty.
Mommy: Ok, but let's check on the baby first. She may be still sleeping.
Opening Lorelei's door, Mommy sees a towel wadded in a swaddling position on the ottoman. Aly runs to the towel, opens it up, to show Mommy her baby... a wiimote.

Dinner conversations
Daddy: Aly, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Aly: I... I want to work in a flower garden. And it's bath time. I need a bath because the flowers are thirsty.

After Matt caught her cup from falling off the table:

Daddy, you're a good catch.

Daddy: Aly, where do you want to go to school when you grow up?

Aly: Red college. Red.

and this morning...

Aly: Mommy, will you open the door? It's ponytail time.

Disney video

Some of you may have seen this already, but I was reminded of it while Aly and I watched Snow White this morning. Make sure to turn off the player at the bottom of the screen so you can hear the song accompanying the video, it fits perfectly ;).

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

You win again, Technology.

An eventful weekend has passed, hence the relatively close blog update. Mandy's wedding was this weekend, as you all know, and there was never a dull moment.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner, and although it had been pouring all afternoon/night, the dinner itself went well. Matt and I connected with several of Mandy's friends, and everyone had a good time. Including Aly and Lorelei, who were upstairs with a babysitter. Aly enjoyed herself so much that she made her very first boyfriend, a little boy her age named Ian who has a very similar energy level ;). My little flirt and Ian apparently smooched several times. I still giggle to myself when thinking about it.

That night was not easy... Lorelei had been up since 5:30 that morning with tiny cat naps in between, and had reached the overtired point. She cried for a few hours, played for an hour, and then woke up four hours later... which meant she, Aly, and I only got four hours of sleep.

Mandy's wedding day loomed sunny and beautiful, God was merciful. Unfortunately poor Mandy woke up with and kept a headache all day. Matt was completely awesome, taking care of the girls all day long, uncomplaining, doing whatever we needed. He really proved how mature and just wonderful he is this weekend.

A few of the females met for a Bridal Brunch with Mandy, then off to the hair salon. Mother had her hair done... The first time I've seen something done to it other than her normal curled under shoulder length bob. It was beautiful, and as soon as I'm allowed to share pictures of the wedding I'm sure you all will agree.

Mandy + wedding dress glamour + excitement over marrying Andy = complete gorgeousness. Even though she was sick she was the most beautiful bride I've ever seen. :) I didn't drop the ring, bouquet, step on her dress, trip, or anything I imagined ;). Everything was beautiful, hopefully pictures will be allowed soon.

Lorelei in her dress, completely grumpy.

Aly in her dress, feeling like a princess

April's daughter Hailee, is completely wonderful with Aly. Definitely one of Aly's favorite people!

Poor Lorelei kept on feeling bad, making Matt step out 10 minutes in and keeping her grumpy throughout the reception. Nonetheless, she made a beautiful pig.

Aly was her usual precocious self as Princess Pirate. I forgot her hat, oh well.

Remember smoochy boy? She and Ian did a little dancing. One of the most hilarious things of my life, especially after a long day on 4 hrs sleep.

Unfortunately that night Lorelei had another over-tired spell, and since we were right beside Mandy & Andy's room as well as out of concern for Lorelei, we made the trek home. Probably not the smartest thing since Matt was tired from taking care of the girls all day and I was hanging on by a thread, but we made it.

Yesterday was pretty bad. Aly has a bacterial infection which resembled a stomach virus in symptom, and Lorelei has developed an ear infection plus the tummy problems she's had for the past two weeks. I'm so glad Matt had taken that day off as well, or I'd probably have assumed the fetal position for most of the day. :(

In absolutely great, wonderful news, Matt won the Ellisville/Moselle route bid! Yaaaaaay! We had no idea that he was going to, had heard that someone higher up had bid, but thankfully (for us) that driver wasn't eligible to bid on a route right now. So Matt, circa 6 weeks from now, will start working only 45-50 hour weeks, have a route that is super close so there won't be the hour drives just to get to his warehouse, leaving him so much more time for family, and, well, life! His world has been just work this past year, to the point that out of town family members would find out about Lorelei and Aly's milestones before he could. This will even leave him time to start edging back into school.