Day Eight: A Place You've Traveled to and Where Else You'd Like to Travel

A Place I've Traveled to and Where Else I'd Like to Travel

This could, honestly, end up being a really lame post.  Honestly, I'm not much of one for traveling!  My current job has given me the opportunity to travel quite a bit, but the nature of our work means I'm mostly traveling to small, Midwestern towns.  It's been a really fun experience, but I don't feel like travel is exciting or interesting, necessarily.  Trips as a kid were fun.  But, as an adult, it's just an awful lot of work.

Don't get me wrong, I like a good trip, but I just don't WANT to travel.  Ha. 

Having said that, I will answer the prompt.  But, those of you out there who have traveled the world and loved it, you'll think I'm a real bummer. 

So, a place I've traveled to.  This is a weird question.  It doesn't have to be a cool place, a place I loved, or a unique place.  Just, a place.  I guess I'll go with Washington DC.  When I was a senior in high school, my choir had the opportunity to sing at the lighting of the national Christmas tree.  This was a really cool experience.  As a bit of a (US) history nut, I really enjoyed the chance to tour and sing in the White House, to tour the Pentagon (it was close enough after 9/11 that general tours weren't being done), and to shake the President's hand.  Also, as a California girl, being there at Christmas time and watching big, fat snowflakes flutter down from the sky was really neat.  I'd love to go back to the area and do a lot more sightseeing. 

And, where else I'd like to travel.  As I said, I'm just not yearning to travel around the world.  I'm sure I would love many places.  I think that Italy, Greece, China, Japan and Australia would be the experience of a lifetime if I were to go - but I just don't really feel strongly that I need to make it happen.  I really want to take Geoff to Disneyland (he's never been!!!), but that's something we are saving for when the little man is a bit older.  Anywhere with a warm beach is welcome in my life, so Hawaii or the Virgin Islands would be fun.  But, I'm pretty content to find adventure close to home and sleep in my own bed at night. 

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Day Seven: What Makes You Happy

What Makes Me Happy

I have a little blurb on my Facebook profile that states "I love my husband, my son (1-year old), TV, movies, winter clothes (not winter weather) anything by Maroon 5, facebook-stalking, dancing in inappropriate places (i.e. the grocery store), singing in the car, Diet Mt Dew, and sunshine (that kind that warms both your body and soul)."

That's a pretty good summary of what makes me happy.   A few I might add to the list include: talking to my mama, thrift store shopping, performing, laughing so hard your belly hurts, elliptical trainers, DQ Blizzards, story time with Will, and pay day.

What makes YOU happy? 

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Day Six: Pet Peeves

Pet Peeves

Here are a few of my pet peeves.  I'm honestly pretty laid back about most stuff (read the last sentence of number 2), but there are a few things that get me going.  After writing this I realized most of this is applicable to the workplace as well.  

1) Basic spelling and grammar errors.  The difference between "their", "they're" and "there" is extremely important.  Apostrophes have an important place and should be used properly.  And the word tomorrow doesn't have an "a" in it. If there is one thing I'm determined to ensure it's that my son will know the difference between an adjective and an adverb and that he won't leave his participles dangling [insert prepubescent giggling here].  **Disclaimer: This does NOT mean I claim to have perfect grammar or that I never make an error.  My own errors peeve me as well.  :)

2) Whining.  I took a personality test, called the SELF test, a little while ago at a management seminar.  I learned that I am an Efficient type.  This basically means I like to get stuff done.  Now.  Excuses really bug me, but whining is the worst.  Don't get me wrong, sometimes venting is necessary to regroup and refocus.  But, whining just means that nothing is being done to resolve the issue at hand.  I'm a firm believer that if you can do something about it - do it.  If you won't do anything about it - get happy about it.  If you can't do anything about it - let it go. 

3)  Bad attitudes.  I have a quote up in my kitchen that says "Happiness comes to those who seek it."  I think this is extremely true.  If you walk through your day looking for reasons to be unhappy or to make yourself a victim, you'll find them.  If you walk through your day looking for reasons to be grateful and joyful, you'll find them.  If you do the project with a bad attitude, your quality of work will suffer and the whole project will be an ordeal.  If you do the project with a good attitude, you'll have better results and feel more self-satisfaction for a job completed.

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Day Five: What Song Inspires You

What Song Inspires You

As you may have gathered from my day three post, music has been a pretty powerful force in my life.  There have been many influential songs.  Some inspire me to let loose and have fun.   Some remind me certain times in my childhood or youth and remind me to stay young at heart.  Some remind me of the glory of God and the joy I have in Him.  Some make me cry, some make me laugh, some make me sing. 

However, for this post, I think I am just going to go with the first song that I thought of when I read the prompt for today. 

My job has brought me to many places around the country.  One of my job functions has been to travel to non-profit radio stations during their on-air pledge drives and provide software support.  Most of the stations who request this particular service are Christan Pop radio stations.  There is one song that I have been introduced to at these drives called "The Voice of Truth" that has come to mean a lot to me. 

The following lines from the song are the specific ones that echo in my mind quite often:

"Oh, what I would do to have the kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant with just a sling and a stone. Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors shaking in their armor, wishing they'd have had the strength to stand.

But the giant's calling out my name and he laughs at me, reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed. The giant keeps on telling me, time and time again, 'Boy, you'll never win! You'll never win!'

But the voice of truth tells me a different story. The voice of truth says "Do not be afraid!"...Out of all the voices calling out to me, I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth."

I feel like the lyrics speak for themselves pretty well.  I mean, who hasn't had those days where their internal demons remind them of their shortcomings?  Or those days when we feel like we aren't good enough or smart enough?  This song reminds me that we can choose to feed the demons or we can choose to remember our divine nature and walk tall and proud and defy those demons. 

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Day Four: Your Parents

My Parents

This is kind of a fun topic for me.  I have been blessed with some pretty amazing parents.  I'm also a pretty good mixture of the two.  I got my looks from my dad's side of the family.  I got my wit from my mom.  I got my patience from my dad.  I got my mad baking skills from my mom.  I got my work ethic from them both.

I was pretty lucky as a teen.  My parents weren't super lame (which is a plus for any teen).  But, the three of us had a really good time together -  and still do.

I talk to my mom every day and she and I like to joke that we "share a brain."  Which of us actually gets it on any given day is a debatable.  We have delusions of someday having our own podcast, and I'd be the Regis to her Kelly.  And, of course, we would be undoubtedly famous - because we think we're hilarious.  It has yet to be determined if that is because we share a brain or because we are, indeed, hilarious. She "gets me" on a level that no one else can and I'm so grateful to have her in my life.

My dad has always had the innate power to make me feel special.  On Sunday afternoons he used to sit on the couch and listen to me sing (for as long as I was willing), while my mom accompanied me on the piano.  I was told I could do anything I wanted - but I also knew it was true.  I knew that I was strong and smart and beautiful and that my father believed I could be successful in anything to which I put my mind.  I'm pretty self-motivated, but it was my dad's belief in my abilities that really removed the need from "rules" in my life growing up.  The person I am today has a lot to do with the fact that my dad knew that I could be this person and encouraged me to take the steps to get here.  

I'm a lucky girl and I hope to be as good a parent to my kids as my parents were to me.  

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Day Three: My First Love

My First Love

It's interesting; I challenged my friend, Amanda to join me in my blog challenge.  She accepted (and is, thankfully, just about as far behind as I am, so I don't have to feel like too much of a punk).  The thing that is interesting, though, is that she and I both went the same direction in our minds when we read the phrase "my first love."

Tales of my first romantic love don't seem fitting as my first real love came many, many years before.  I regret to say that I have lost touch with that love these days, which is a fact I often feel sadly about.  Nonetheless, my first love and passion is to sing. 

I started taking voice lessons at the age of 7 and continued to take them for 11 years.  I took lessons from teachers in differing techniques: belt, pop, and classical/opera.  I've been in more than 8 musical theater shows (which isn't all that many - but considering I did all 8 of those in mostly a 3 to 4-year period, it's not too shabby!), I've competed in state-wide vocal competitions, and performed with the VOENA children's choir when I was in high school.

To be honest, most of those accomplishments happened a very long time ago.  As I started to turn into a teenager and learned about all the awesome insecurities that come along with that - I shied away from performing a bit.  

But, my passion for music and singing, deep down, hasn't fizzled.  I'm sad to say that I don't sing nearly enough and I wish I were more involved in local choirs and opportunities to sing.  But, when I do find the opportunity to sing, I am filled with a joy and love that has been there (probably forever) as long as I can remember. 

I hope my son is able to find something he loves so much - that isn't a girl!  :)

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Day Two: Nicknames

So, day two of the challenge just says Nicknames.

I like nicknames.  Kind of.  It's actually a little weird.  Since a young age I have been very insistent that my name is Amanda.  Not Mandy.  I even cried once in 2nd grade when, due the abundance of Amandas in my class, I had to be called Amanda G instead of just Amanda.

However, having said that, I have always been called nicknames by my immediate family.  As a kid I was noodle (for reasons I'm not entirely sure).  As I got older, my whole fam began calling me Sis (hence the Sis part of the blog).  My brother and I took an organic chemistry class together in college, so his version of Sis morphed to Cis at that time. (Google Cis and Trans isomers if you want a little insight as to why - it's actually kind of DEEP if you think about sibling bonds.  Yeah, we're deep.)

We use a lot of nicknames in our home.  Will (which I suppose is technically a nickname of William) gets called a variety of names, but his primary nickname is bean.  This stemmed from his very first ultrasound when he was literally just a bean-sized baby.  It's hard to believe he's a 25 pound toddler now!

Geoff gets call "Hub" from me most often.  My fam likes to call him Gee (hence the Gee part of the blog).  He calls me muffin (typically pronounce moofin) and hot mama.  Okay, I may have made that last one up.

Well, who knows if this is what the blog challenge creator wanted when they said "Nicknames" on day 2.  But, there ya go.  At least now you know the reason for the name of my blog, in case you never knew before!

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