Never met a questionaire I didnt like...

I never met a questionaire that I didn't like. And maybe this will help me get into the habit of updating regularly.  I said maybe so don't get your hopes up too fast!! :)  I  'borrowed' this from my best friend's blog.  And yes, I'm thinking of taking her Photo a Day challege thing too. :)  So there!   What can I say, the girl has good taste!! :)

(A) Age: 29

(B) Bed Size: Full size... at least for 7 more months and then when Tim moves in we will have a King size!! FINALLY

(C) Chore You Hate: Cleaning the toilet/shower.  It's just not enjoyable.

(D) Dogs? I would love to have a dog some day!  Tim and I have been talking about this. Once we no longer live on a college campus we will have a dog or two.  We are contemplating getting a bulldog, (well thats what Tim wants) and I would love a Golden Retriever.

(E) Essential Start Your Day Item: Diet Coke.  Enough said!

(F) Favorite Color: Blue and green and occassionaly purple. But mostly blue.

(G) Gold or Silver? Silver. White Gold if I really have a choice.

(H) Height: 5"6 or so..

(I) Instruments You Play: I used to play the piano and the flute very well.  I probably can't do either very well anymore, but I really wish I would've continued on with playing piano!!  Maybe one day, I'll  get back to it.

(J) Job Title: Residence Director. 

(K) Kids: No kids yet, but Tim and I would like a family some day.

(L) Live: Nashville, TN

(M) Mom's Name: Helen

(N) Nicknames: Laceylou, Capt Lacey, and several affectionate names that Timmy calls me.

(O) Overnight Hospital Stays? When I had my gall bladder surgery.. my Katie (best friend) stayed with me in the frozen tundra of a room until my family could be there.  She's a great friend for that!!

(P) Pet Peeve: People who aren't very good drivers.  Especially those that drive with their blinker on and you never know where they are going to turn or if they are just clueless.

(Q) Quote from a Movie:  "The odd thing about this form of communication is that you're more likely to talk about nothing than something. But I just want to say that all this nothing has meant more to me than so many somethings. "  Kathleen Kelly {You've Got Mail}

(R) Right or Left Handed? Right

(S) Siblings: my big brother, Scott

(T) Time You Wake Up? 6:50am on the weekdays and on the weekends I'm usually up by about 8:30-8:45am at the latest.

(U) Underwear: Little personal huh? :)  Let's just say that I have a large collection of them and they are very colorful.

(V) Vegetable You Dislike: Cauliflower

(W) What Makes You Run Late: Myself if I do run late, but I'm typically a punctual person.  But occassionally sometimes work things come up and might set me back a little bit.

(X) X-Rays You've Had Done: X-ray of my gall bladder and then a year later on my kidneys

(Y) Yummy Food You Make: I'm a pretty good cook and do a lot of things well.  I'd say that my Poppy Seed Chicken is one of my best dishes, but so are my pot roasts and veggie beef soups.  And Tim says I do a really good job with chili and I dont even eat chili! I only make it because I know he enjoys it. :)(Z) Zoo, Favorite Animal: Elephants. Or panda bears!

In other news, this song always puts me in the best mood!!  I'm not really sure what it is about this song, but I really enjoy it!! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGMabBGydC0

Time to see how long I'll keep up with this!

   
     Well, this has been something that I have been slowly inspired to do.  I love reading blogs, but often find that there just isn't enough time in the day for me to write a blog or keep up with it.  I always say that I'll do that, but then I don't because I often get bogged down with work stuff or would rather hang out with Tim or friends instead of blogging.  Then I look back on it and I have many thoughts floating through my head that I feel would be better if I get them out.  So, here's to seeing how long I can keep this up.

     Let's see, where to start?!  My inspiration for this blog actually came to me while I was in Philadelphia for a work conference about 2 weeks ago.  I attended a session entitled: Creating a Work-Life Balance for Live-On Professionals.  I thought, "Awesome!! That's exactly what I need to attend and learn about."  Well, most of what I heard, I already knew.  I am a live-on professional at a university.  While many would turn their noses up at the opportunity to live in the residence halls with the students, others completely understand why I do what I do.  I absolutely love working with college students!  I feel as though I'm able to connect and relate to students and help them through the stuff they are going through and give examples with the things I experienced in my college days.  There is no doubt about it that some days are very hard and trying and make me question why I do this at all.  But there's always that one student who sticks out to you and comes back to say "Thank You for helping me, " and I'm quickly reminded that THIS is why I do my job: to impact the lives of college students and help them stay on a path to success in their lives. 

     Learning how to balance life while living in a residence hall with students can prove to be difficult.  This is mainly because you are constantly "on-call" even when it isn't your turn to be on-call for the month.  Having the responsibility for 410 freshmen lives can be a daunting task, but that's why I have a powerful team of RAs that help me supervise this crew.  Many students are trouble makers and like to push the envelope with the policies to see what they can get away with and wonder if they'll be caught. {Have no fear little freshmen, I always catch the bad guy!!} :) However, several of the students really make the experience worthwhile and remind you why you're here and enjoy this. 
    
     Being a live-in professional has it perks and it's downsides as well.  Perk #1:  fully paid apartment (w/ utilities)= no rent.  Perk #2: access to maintenance to fix things on a whim if something is broken.  Perk #3: No commute to work! Which is extremely helpful since gas prices are a tad on the crazy side these days.  Downside #1: apartment located right off main lobby= stares from students every time you come and go from your apartment. Downside #2:  living on campus= surrounded by noise pretty much 24/7.  Downside #3: having to deal with water leaks, fire alarms, alcohol violations, drug violations, roommate conflicts (girls can NEVER get along), and many other types of emergency situations and policy violations at any given time during the day; but mostly after midnight.  After a while, it starts to wear you down.  And its important to GET OFF CAMPUS even if for only an hour to have some you time. 

    I'm finding out for myself lately, that it's really important to make sure you take time for myself.  And sometimes that might mean not seeing Tim, not calling people back, not participating in various events, or whatever because I simply just need some me time.  I'm currently planning my wedding for October 2011 with my fiancé', Tim.  It's very easy for me to get caught up in wedding details and suddenly forget that I have work responsibilities to tend too.  Although, it's also very easy for me to get caught up with work stuff and forget that we have an appointment to meet with the caterer or with the manager at the reception venue. How does one create a balance in their life to juggle all of that?!  Part of me knows that my job is a high priority sometimes because it's the reason I'm here in Nashville and why I've been able to stay here (at least for now).  But then part of my realizes that Tim is a priority in my life now as well.  Then I noticed that time spent conversing and catching up with close friends and family slips because I push that off too easily too.  There just isn't enough time in the day to do everything I want and need to do.  Above all, my highest priority being my relationship with God suffers through all of this.  It's so easy for me to push aside my devotion time/prayer time with God because I'm just too busy.  And then things start piling up and piling up and it gets to be frustrating.  I have found that when I am disciplined in my time spent with God that everything else seems to fall in place as it should.  Funny how that works isn't it?  But it’s also so easy to just push that part of my life aside and say "I'll come back to this tomorrow."  And tomorrow turns into 2 days, turns into next week and before I know it.. I haven’t had any prayer time in a month and I'm feeling all sorts of BLAH! 

    So this is me.. going through life of juggling fiancé', work, family and friends, God, wedding planning, and everything else that I'm involved in and want to be involved in.  I'm just trying to figure it all out and make it work.  Sometimes it just takes a reminder, sometimes it takes discipline, and sometimes it takes rearranging your schedule or waking up earlier to be able to do it all in one day.  But, this is life... and I'm getting through it.  One step at a time.