Interview By Zandria

The other day over at Keep Up With Me, Zandria did a interview where she answers questions about herself by being interviewed by someone else. I've seen a few of these going around the Internet so I thought it would be interesting to participate. Lucky for me...I was one of the 1st 5 people to respond and so I get to be 'interviewed' by Zandria. I should have known when I asked to be interviewed, that this would be no walk in the park. Seriously have you read any of this girls posts? She is anything but dull and regularly challenges herself to new things (go check her out, she is always involved in something interesting), but alas I must have had amnesia on that day and now I'm left to find the answers to my own 'interview' questions. I will try to live up to your standard Zan, but I fear I am probably more boring than I seem. :)


1) You're doing the Special K Challenge. What’s the hardest part? What are your biggest temptations? (For me, it would be eating only three meals a day…I hope you’re allowed more than one serving of cereal for breakfast and lunch!) http://www.cafekel.com/2009/01/challenges-you.html
The hardest part about the Special K challenge is the food choices. It is cereal & cereal bars for meals, cereal snack bars & fruit/veggies for snacks and water/special K water for drinks. With one regular meal in the mix (any meal of the day.) I can usually eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast, sneak in a regular lunch, but cereal for dinner...um, not my first choice. I like variety so I have 4 different boxes of cereal with 5 different types of snack bars and I fill in a lot with fruit & veggies so I don't have to eat so much cereal snacks.

As for my biggest temptations, that is easy - the lack of caffeinated beverages. I admit it, I am a coke/diet coke/Dr.Pepper addict. I try to limit myself to 1 a day, but don't always succeed. I get to drink flavored water, but I still find myself taking a sip of my favorite beverage every now and again (yes, I steal sips from hubby's glass, so shoot me!)

2) Your New Years resolution was to "find and follow" your passion. You said you want to "stop putting myself second and start focusing on doing something that makes me happy." What steps have you taken so far, or are you planning to take? http://www.cafekel.com/2009/01/my-news-years-resolution-was-to-find.html

Part of find/follow my passion involves getting more involved in social media. I knew before 2009 began that there were going to be career changes coming my way and that would allow some flexibility in how I pursued my passion. In an effort to become more involved, I have signed up for BlogHer 09, I am getting more involved with the Memphis Social Media group and I am now a contributing writer at Blissfully Blended. Oddly enough, I am also starting a more social aspect to my job, that may not be what I had originally planned, but certainly is on the path to many more opportunities in the future.

3) If you got pregnant again and you could choose the sex and physical appearance of your unborn child, would you do it? Why or why not?
If I got pregnant again, I'd hunt down my last Dr. and shoot him - :) In all seriousness, with Little Miss, I decided to have my tubes tied and even now, as much as I love my children I am terrified at the thought of any more. If however, I could choose the sex and appearance I don't think I would. I've read some of the medical publications on 'custom' genetically altered children and while part of that idea is super appealing (I want super fast runner child to take after daddy) but its also kind of scary to think the child couldn't grow up to be who they wanted. Looking at my children, I love noticing they have my eyes and his chin, my smile and his legs. Watching them change and develop and grow it an amazing process. I can't imagine already having the answers. Although, knowing they were going to have an easy going, laid back temperament instead of my up tight, list making, retentive one would be nice.

4) You’re riding an elevator up to the 27th floor of a building when it suddenly stops. You call for assistance and the person who answers says it will take several hours before someone can come to your rescue. How would you react?
I'd like to think I'd be calm, but I have a sneaky suspicion that I'd probably not be all "It's ok, they'll get to us when they can" kind of attitude. I'd probably be more assertive and want to know why it will take so long, what the suspected problem is, who is being notified and 'can I have their number to call them myself?' I am not a patient person, but then again, if I could be trapped with sexy Brad Pitt or Britney Spears I think I could find ways to A. lure them into some hot 'this thing could plummet to the ground at any second' nookie or B. convince them to be my new BFF! :) (come on now, who wouldn't want to be ravished like the scene in thelma and louise?)
5) Twofold: What do you like best about your physical appearance? What do you like best about yourself that isn’t visible from the outside?
Growing up I HATED my eyes because they were so dark compared to the rest of me (fair skinned and blond hair,) but now I think they are one of my better physical traits. As far as what isn't visible, this is probably a 'whats on the inside that counts' kind of question, but as far as non-visible to the outside I'd have to say I like best about me ... my tattoo. I think it represents my personality in more ways than I could have imagined at the time I got it (12 years ago) so, yeah, not visible but definitely what I like best about me.

Ok, So the rules are as follows
1. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions. Be sure to link back to the original post.
2. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
3. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
So the first 5 people who want to be interviewed leave me a comment saying "Interview Me" and I'll send you your very own 5 questions.

Also I'd love to know if there is anything YOU want to know. Ask away - my 200th post is just around the corner and I'm fair game to pretty much any question.
What do YOU want to know?

Recharge

My news years resolution was to find and follow my passion. This is the year I am going to stop putting myself second and start focusing on doing something that makes me happy.

"Well that sounds selfish," you say?

Actually, I gave it a lot of thought, but its not selfish to do something for ourselves. As mothers, as wives or as women in general, we spend a great deal of time doing for others. This is not to say that the men out there do not do "their share," but we work, take care of the children, the home, PTA, school projects - whatever it is, we run out of time and the person who usually is left to last is ourselves.

For example, I left work fully intending to pick the girls up from school and head to the gym. The hubs would take Little Miss and I would have an hour or so to clear my mind. Upon my arrival at daycare I was informed that Little Miss had a really rough day and from the moment I picked her up, she clung to my neck and wouldn't let go. After I got home, DQ had homework woes, Little Miss just wanted to be held and the hubs had a big paper due that he needed to focus on. So....I stayed home.

These things happen, I understand this. We make allowances for these things and adjust our plans, but what if we are the type who are willing to give in ALL the time or even MOST of the time? Eventually we need to unplug from life and recharge our batteries too. I know I am a better mother/wife when I've recharged, when I've had that hour away from someone screaming "MOMMY!!!" or staring at the mountain of laundry that is never ending or chasing the dust bunnies that keep reappearing (no matter how many I suck up.) I'm happier, I'm less stressed and I'm much more apt to be supportive of everyone else when I'm not running on empty.

Do you take the time to "recharge" when you need it?

Got Faith?

Do you have Faith?

Faith is defined as:

1.	confidence or trust in a person or thing

2.	belief that is not based on proof

For many it is a belief in God or a Higher Being, I am not getting into the religious debate so for the purpose of this post, I am going to simply leave it at the definitions above.

I have faith. Faith that there is a bigger purpose for me than I am aware, faith that I am not alone in this world, faith that everything has a reason-even if unknown to me. I have always had faith, but I have not always held onto these beliefs as strongly as I do now.

Yesterday, I got the phone call I had known all along would come, the one I was preparing for and yet, secretly hoping I could escape, and you know what? Despite the fact that I had plenty of fair warning-it made my chest tighten up as I sucked in air like someone had just sucker punched me in the gut.

I sat there, listening to the person on the other end with a smile plastered on my face so no one around me would know and spoke with a more "up beat" chirp in my voice than necessary to try and mask my immensely growing fear. Doubtful that I succeeded, but then again perhaps no one knew.

Knowing it is coming does not make it easier.

The day I proclaim to the world that I have decided to seek my "passion," the day I take my stand against the great unknown and just like that, it laughs in my face and brings me right back down to earth, only this time a few inches smaller than I was when I started.

On the surface, everything is clearly defined, explanations and logic fall neatly into place. I could easily tie a pretty bow on this package and put it on the shelf with all the others, but in my heart I know there is something I am meant to understand that is just below the surface, something I can't quite see yet. I've talked about change a few months ago, at which time I had nothing to go on but a feeling. A few months prior to that I asked you all "If you would want to know what lies ahead?" Not because I knew what was ahead, but because I felt something. Even this morning as I sorted thru emails, one small quote at the end of a friends note caught my eye -

"Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk."

So what am I trying to say?

Yesterday sucked, to put it bluntly and for today I'm holding onto faith that there is a bigger picture, that I cannot see or understand yet, but there is something in store much greater than the fear I currently harbor. Fear is my greatest weakness and I am doing my damndest to over come this right now, not really sure how, but knowing that while things could be so much worse, this is not a problem I am facing so much as an opportunity waiting to be seized.

Have you seized your opportunity today?

Steps towards a New Beginning

You can have anything you want if you want it desperately enough.

This was what my fortune cookie revealed to me, where now it sits visible as a daily reminder to myself. Desperation is a funny thing - it can make people do funny things, things they normally would not find themselves doing. Sometimes this is a good thing, as it can spur you into action when it seems the chips are not in your favor and cause you to get creative or pursue your passion and sometimes desperation can cause you to explore options not normally in your nature because you feel you've been backed into a corner and have no other way out.

I don't want to be desperate though, to find what I love or to get what I need...so then what?

What do I want? It's a question I've asked myself many thousand times before - a question usually answered with silence. A defining silence that echos within the spirit of my being because I was afraid to answer that question...afraid I might not find what I wanted. So what is it that I want...what is it that I truly desire in this world, beyond my health and a good life for my family full of love and opportunity to see my children grow and thrive?

I want to be inspired.

I want to feel passion in what I do.

I need to feel challenged.

I need to feel alive.

So where do I go from here?

2009 is said to be a year for big change - its electrifying the air around us-perhaps that's true, but for me, I am feeling the urge to seek out my place in all of this...to fuel my passion and go after what my heart desires. I do what I currently do because its easy and it comes naturally. Nothing more than the ordinary is expected of me and I chose this path specifically because of this. A while back, I found my self at a cross roads and took the one that looked like the road less traveled. It was dark, bumpy and more than once I fell down, scrapped my knee and even got beat up once or twice along the way. So when that path intersected once again with this one, I did not hesitate to move to a more favorable, well lit one. Looking back on the experience I notice one commonality...I was tired and ill prepared for the journey the first time. I struggled down that road because I did everything the hard way and sometimes I think you have to do it the hard way first so that you can enjoy and fully appreciate when it is done right.

Problem for me is that what was intended to be a quick break in the action, became instead a place for me to hide out and blend in with my surroundings. A place to become complacent and satisfy only my basic necessities. It did nothing to foster personal or creative growth, it did not inspire me in any way and often times left me mentally starving. Instead of fighting my way out of this slump, I dug in and made myself a more permanent fixture on the wall because it paid the bills and didn't require me to think much...something I was tired of doing.

Now however, I am stagnating in this place I've come to call my prison and need to break free and resume active participation down the path of my own life. That is the part I'm not so sure of...the part that requires me to let go of my familiar surroundings and step into the unknown fueled only by my hearts desire, my passion.

In the spirit of all things new with the changing of the calander, my resolution this year is to find my passion. My wish for each of you in the year 2009 is that you find your passion and let it lead the way.

Doing what you like is freedom, liking what you do is happieness!