It Does Not Rain Here!

So, Eric had gone to mow the lawn the other day before we went out to get some shopping done.  He cut up his hand at work, and managed to tear it back open mowing so I told him to only finish the front and I'd get the backyard over the weekend. Wellll.... Friday "doesn't count" as the weekend, and yesterday I was just lazy and today I realize crap, I need to mow the lawn!  It's almost 5 and it's looking dark... oh hey thats a lot of clouds!

So this of course is when I decide to mow the lawn.

Note, we are in that spot with no rain.  This is NOT an uncommon radar this summer.  And that big blob of red will never get here!  Today it is moving north.  But even when it is moving east, it ends up having what my father has dubbed "The Kate Effect" and breaks down to nothing before reaching me.  Frequently, we don't end up even seeing rain.

I.  Love.  Storms.  So I find it rather offensive that mother nature has somehow created this bubble over my neighborhood that seems to make it impervious to storms.

~Katy
PS- that lack of rain over the swamp is another typical pattern!  Guess the swamp is wet enough.

Happy Friday!

Well it is FRIDAY!  For most people it's the end of the work week. For me it's the start of the weekend!  Well, kinda.  I typically don't have clients on Fridays so all the work I do, I do from home.  In my PJs typically.  Sometimes I hole up in my office, where my cats aren't allowed, and sometimes I bring the work computer downstairs and cuddle while I work.  More often I just do nothing after the clinical meeting (which is online or on the phone!)
Which means that nothing exciting has happened today.  Except the rotten tomatoes.
See, I was sitting on the couch doing nothing important when I heard a sound.  I assumed it was a cat was coming into the room, but looked and saw 3 of them sitting next to me or at my feet (yep,my cats love me.) then they all started to look at where the sound came from, got up and started staring and sniffing.  I was thinking, oh hey!  I love having cats, they notice and creepy crawlies so I have warning and can find them.  I look at where they are looking expecting a bug.  Instead I hear a drip.  My husbands coworker had given him some fresh tomatoes from her garden, and they had ended up on the table. (Note, our kitchen table is currently in our living room.  Yeah.  We're strange.)  Anyways they were double bagged in Walmart bags and had gone rotten and started, as vegetables to when they rot, to get a bit soggy.  The water was dripping out of the bag onto the floor and into a pair of my shoes.
That settled my need to replace those shoes!  Later I went and spent entirely too much money on shoes, and now all is well.  The tomato water didn't get all over the table (thank goodness!) and not much had dropped before I caught it and tossed the bag.

~Katy

Kids... Or a lack thereof.

So now that I am married and my sister has had her first child, I feel as though the topic of kids comes up more often.  Have you ever noticed that once you are married everyone just assumes you're going to pop out a kid or a few?  Like your marriage isn't complete without one.  You should hear the comments if your answer to "so when are you having one?" is "never." Even when you include a whole list of well thought out reasons why kids aren't for you, there's always a reply along the lines of "ohhh that may change."
I once even had a conversation with a woman explaining how I didn't want kids whose reply was basically that I would probably change my mind like her sister who never wanted kids but changed her mind... and  went on to add that now that she thinks of it her sister is just not a good mother.  Um, yes, thanks for proving my point!
I will be perfectly honest, I'm not completely sure why people want kids in the first place.  Childbirth and pregnancy are uncomfortable and painful.  Kids are a lot of hard work that you can't take a break from.  Most people don't even have time for their kids really, and pay to make them someone else's responsibility at least a part of the time.
My own personal reasons for not wanting kids are numerous, and one of them is that I love my job, I intend to continue doing it for quite some time, and would not like the idea of sending my kids to daycare.  I don't live close to my family, so I do not have the option to have family watch them like my sister does living close to both our parents and her inlaws.  I just personally don't feel child care is the best place to have a child for such a length of time almost every day.  In addition to being expensive, I would just not feel good about myself if I had kids in daycare.  Since I have already put a lot of time and heart into my profession, and those in my position are desperately needed, it makes sense to me to focus on that.
Also, I am in need of a lot of down time.  I like getting home from work and sitting on my ass.  My husband likes getting home from work and sitting on his ass.  That would not happen with kids.  I like to pursue interests outside of work, I swing dance and go to gymnastics classes and those are things I may not have the time to do with kids.  Some people see this as selfish, I know, not wanting kids because they would get in the way of me doing what I want.  But it's entirely the opposite.  I would be selfish if I decided to have kids and still did everything I wanted anyways despite it interfering with quality time with my kids.  I know lots of people like spending their time with kids (particularly their own) and are perfectly happy devoting all their free time to them.  I am not that person.  I worked hard to be a financially stable adult with the freedom to do whatever I want (within budget) whenever I want (work schedule permitting.)
And about that financial stability thing... KIDS ARE EXPENSIVE!!  We don't need that.  So much added stress.  No thanks!
I continue to go back in forth in my head on whether or not I'd even be a good mother.  On the one hand, I have a lot of experience and training and know my kids would be well behaves- IF I ever got up off my lazy butt to deal with them appropriately.  I'm just not sure if I'd be that mom who sat there and yelled "stop that!" from the other room without ever actually DOING something.  And I can't stand moms like that.  So I certainly don't want to become one.  And if I were to become one, my kids would be those annoying bratty kids that made me realize maybe I don't like kids all that much in general.
And of course, my husband also doesn't want kids.  He just doesn't like them, is what he says.
So, why do people want kids?  This is an answer I don't have many answers to.
To take care of them when they are older?
To have someone to love?
To have something to take care of?
To live vicariously through them?
Because god said they should?
Because society/family/etc said they should?
To see what the combination of genes with their chosen person looks like?
A crazy experiment?
Biological, evolutionary instincts?

If you have kids, why did you choose to have them?  If you have not, why not?  Would love to hear other peoples thoughts!

~Katy

I'm Back!

Hello there!  I am back and so much has happened since I last wrote!  I am married now, I think is the biggest change.  Another big change is I left the company I had been with since October, 2008.  I began a new job the last day of April and I love it!  I am still doing the same thing I was, but with a new company, and while the old company had a center where I did therapy, the one I work for now does in-home therapy and as of now doesn't have an office so I spend a lot more time at home and with the exception of clients and their families during sessions, I spend a lot less time with people.

Which is part of what sparked me to start up with my blog again.  Until this week, I was still going and overseeing a social skills group for  the old company, so I still saw my old coworkers once a week.  Now I no longer am doing that, and I miss my friends!  I worry about what will happen if I don't start to become more active about maintaining a social life outside of work- particularly now that I no longer have a social life at work.

Another thing that has changed even more recently is that my sister had a baby!  She was born a week ago and my husband, Eric, and I were able to go over the weekend to visit and meet our niece, Eliana.  She is so adorable!  Now, I tend to think newborn babies just look funny, or even downright ugly.  But not Eliana!  She wasn't born looking like a newborn.  She looks so much like my sister and I when we were born!  Except her hair is straight and ours was curly.  Gosh I love that little thing so much.  It is one of the few things that makes me wish I lived closer to my family.

Anyways I hope to keep this blog a little more active but I make no promises!  I hope you keep reading :)

~Katy