What Else Can We Do?

Sam, you come up with some interesting conversation starters.

I'm an RN, I have worked in some form of pediatric nursing forever, but the last 12.5 years I have worked in an integrated special education preschool (the one my middle daughter attended years ago).

I met my dh at a contradance and he was an international folk dance instructor. We both know a lot of folk dances from many countries.

I'm also a semi-professional singer.

I have written for Down syndrome organizations--personal essay type articles and I have been published in a national magazine for parents of children with disabilities. The editor of the magazine later edited a book and included one of my essays in the book.

I'm often amazed at the things people on this site do. Dog sledding is totally believable. Me, I don't do brain surgery in my spare time but I do make jewellery sometimes.

We're in the middle of renos inside and outside of our condo which seems to have been going on forever and gets interesting when you're dealing with multiple personalities who all have different ideas on what's important and what's not. I work at the local hospital (as a clerk) and this week I've managed to use banked overtime to get out of my nights so I have 5 days just to write. Except for some house clean up/organization, shopping. Oh and yesterday I took the opportunity to go for a hike in the crisp fall air. I suspect for most of this weeks it's going to be soggy rain.

Could this be the reason my WIP is not coming along as quickly as I'd hoped?

Pat

I'm a social worker, currently in the school system but I've also worked in the foster care, mental health, and substance abuse systems. 

In my case my husbands doing the work inside and we've had teams of contractors and landscapers working on the outside. Problem - somewhere in the middle of that patio enclosures got taken out of construction and put into landscaping. The landscaper keeps saying well maybe shrubs instead of lattice or solid boundaries. Our unit is close to the front door and 1500 sq feet in Victoria, though it sounds laughable, is a big deal. So far we've had two general meetings. At the last one 39 out of 41 people voted down what had been proposed and said give us patios and then landscaping from there. Our landscaper walked around with the guy heading the landscape committee last night and we seem to be back at square one. I sent him an email going WHAT ARE YOU DOING! and he sent me back an email going it's votable, we'll go over it at the next meeting. This is like having part of your house turned into a votable issue. Not  cool! so in my case it's communication and working together I'm learning about. Did I say desert islands seem like a good thing right now? With a stack of TBR books. Maybe a cabana boy to mist me with water and lots of nice cool drinks?

That cake is gorgeous. I'll bet the bride and groom just loved it.

Pat

This is definitely a group of major achievers...  I'm humbled to be in such august presences!

    Me, well after high school I got a job working in the computer department at Imperial Oil / Esso Resources.   I worked there for 6½ years until I was married and moved back to Edmonton 'cause that's where my husband was.  Our son was born the following year and I've been a SAHM ever since... he's now 24½ years old.  We also have three daughters ~ 23, 21 and 16.  For the last 17 to 18 years I've been babysitting from home and over the years there've been 40 or so children make their way into our home. 
  While my children were in school I was actively involved with the Parent Councils at the elementary and jr. high levels, but with my youngest now in high school I've given that up (I found that the parents in HS take themselves waaaayyy too seriously!)
  I'm also active in our parish ~ although not to the degree I was when the kids were younger.  I taught various sacramental preparation classes, a couple of children's Sunday classes and my husband and I were also members of the RCIA program as well as the Baptism prep program.  Then there were the years that I was on the Parish Council. 

Uh, I've not been that busy for a while ~ I found that I'd get too stressed out and my depression would take over my life....

  Now I babysit two brother-and-sister pairs, one pair some days after school, the other pair 3 to 5 days a week.  These two are 3½ and almost 2, so they keep me busy.  I'm also a readaholic and I collect a variety of things, chief among those books and anime trading cards.  Uh, yeah... I never really grew up either!  LOL
  And I garden ~ when it's not winter or too hot to step out-of-doors.  I've got 6 flower beds of various sizes and my dh is in charge of our somewhat teeny vegetable garden. 

Oh, and did I mention that I read now and again? 

And JV... that cake is totally AMAZING and absolutely beautiful!

You call other people over-achievers? I'm getting tired just reading about everything you do. You sound like you have a wonderful family.

Pat

I appreciate the kind remarks on the cake.  It was my wedding gift for my dear friend's niece, and her groom drew out for me a design of exactly what they wanted it to look like.  So, it was definitely a custom-made thing.  Top layer: rum cake, middle layer: orange cake, bottom layer: chocolate cake with strawberries.

kalyko, don't think for a minute you are not accomplished.  When I "retired" after my DD was born, I had a few people imply that I was wasting my MBA by quitting my job to stay home with my daughter.  I let them know pretty quickly that raising her was THE most important job I'd ever had   I know that not everyone wants to be a SAHM, and that's okay.  It's not for everyone, and even though we sacrifice a lot for our kids, we still have to take care of ourselves.  Still, caring for children is a critically important job, and it requires an expansive set of skills from event planner to mediator, teacher to nurse, cook to housekeeper, CFO to chauffeur, child psychologist to superhero (or superheroine in this case), and everything in between.  Oh, yeah, and you're still supposed to be able to conjure up your inner seductress when the kiddos are asleep.

This is a fun topic

Sadhbh, I had to go to my dictionary to find out what sophrology is - way cool!.

Sam, I envy you the geography degree. I started on one, but the program at my University was 6 years long and I was on contract to the Marine Corps. They would let me have 4 years.

I spent 6 years as an officer in the US Marine Corps. Since then I have mostly worked and as Residential Appraiser and teach a class on how to measure houses. These days I have more time to read as the US housing market is a "bit out of whack". Love the extra reading time, wish I could get paid for it though

I also draw before I decide to become a writer heres my very long story;

When I was in 3rd grade I had told my teacher when I grow up I want to be and author that was in new york I grew older and in the 5 grade I started to write this sci-fi story called over the gates of area 51 needless to say my mom read it and was hooked she brought it to work and they were hooked. after a while my mom was constantly hounding me to go and write my story again, "angie you need a new chapter go do it now" and after a while it just wasnt fun anymore then eventually I quit my book and decided to pursue fashion design since I was good at drawing clothes that everyone loved and everybody did think I was going to become one. I was well on my way, Fashion industries for high school parsons for college then N.Y.U for the fininsh. my grades were great I was going to interveiws special trips, then we moved to ocala my mom told me I could still do fashion over here in the highschools and I  believed her then we got here and I went to apply and low and behold they had none so I had been here ever since not really sure about what I was going to do until one day I went to 10 grade art class and met my bestest friend in the world Padmini she actually handed me my first romance novel which wasnt a harlequin, yet. Then after I read that one which I was very embarassing for me because it had alot of sex she introduced me to my first presents cole camrones revenge by sandra marton and I was hooked. from then on she was my library she supplied me with my first blaze, temptation, suspense, silhouette special, desire, historical  but mostly presents and I sucked them up eagerly. eventually after reading them so much I would think about what I wanted to see in harlequins presents books what I wanted to read and  I started to write again at first I was shy in letting people know but after I told padmini and she read it and was hooked only diffrence was she wasn't hounding me to get the chapter out when I had writers block.  I had no fear, which was why the first time I ever posted my snippits I wasn't afraid, just annoyed when somebody thought it was from a book then I realized I must sound like published goods so I was thankful for the complement and have been ever since. I love wriing in a way that no one but writers can understand I love seeing the looks on my friends faces when I read them the first page and to me that makes everything worth while.

I'm kinda boring.   I'm a mom, a telecommunications geek who started as a technical writer, a wanna be author.  I have a BS in computer science and a minor in English (which is what led to the tech writing gig). 

I take tae kwon do, although I have more fun at it than I am good at it. I love to grocery shop, I'm a mediocre cook, and I'm a fiend when it comes to shopping second hand. Show me a Goodwill, a yard sale, a consignment shop, a used book store, and I'm happy as a clam. 

Honestly, I'm mostly a homebody who loves to read, snuggle with my cats and kid and DH. 

Congrats on the olympic gold!  You must have been quite a burger flipper!

I've loved reading these too.  But then I am very very nosy!

I have done all sorts of jobs in my time (secetary, night carer in a nursing home) but most lately I've got a law degree and worked in family law.  Then had my youngest son, worked as a childminder for a while and am now a foster carer for 2 little girls.

I love to cook, hate cleaning up of any sort and am desperately working at becoming a published author so I can be at home for my kids ... but still pay the bills!

Jo

Sabdh

I just went on the net to find out what it was. It sounds really interesting and very, very useful. Is that what gives you the focus and concentration to read through the huge stacks of books you do while having a full life complete with husband, kids, ?pets and what have you?

I may need to research this more.

Pat

That's so interesting!  I'm guessing it is all based on the same principles as the Lamaze training I took when I was pregnant with DD.  I suspect it is also at the heart of the training that allows some Buddhist monks to control their body core temperature.  I saw a television special on it once and was amazed that they can sleep outdoors in bitterly cold weather without freezing due to some kind of mind-over-body training that they learn.  It's amazing how much control we can have over our bodies if we know what to do and concentrate on it.