On a Quiet Voice

I noticed recently that my son has quite a quiet little voice. He doesn't seem shy and his speaking is fine for his age, but his voice is very soft. He doesn't need to speak loudly at home because it is just he and I and I listen fairly closely to what he says, but it's noticable when we are in loud places and he's trying to talk to me. I know that he gets this feature from me and it bothers me a little. A quiet voice has not generally been a good thing for me. People often just don't listen. They will look at me as if they are listening, and then completely ignore what I say. I'm not sure if they dismiss what I say or if they don't hear me and are too polite to say, "what?" Sometimes when I'm speaking to a group people will simply turn away from me and start speaking to someone else while I'm in mid-sentence. I promise that I'm not paranoid about this, my hubby notices it too. He's the one in the group that keeps listening so that I'm not talking to myself. I'll play it off and finish what I'm saying to just him, even though it's something he already knows. Sometimes it bothers him more than it bothers me. Some people do it hardly ever and some people do it almost always. If you aren't Schuyler or Leah, you've probably done it at some point or other. But don't worry, everybody that reads this blog (that I know of) falls under the hardly ever category. Anyway, all that to say that I don't want Levi to run into this problem. I have the feeling that it would be much worse for a man. I don't want him to be ignored and dismissed. I wonder if there is anything I can do to encourage him to speak more loudly.

Read it!

Read this post and then read Zechariah. Or the other way round, but read them both.

My Personality Thingy

So I'm going to do this fun personality thingie that other people are doing because it sounds fun and I'm desperately seeking reassurance that you like me. Only kidding! But I am doing it, so if you know me, and I'm assuming you do because you're here, follow this link and choose some adjectives to describe me. I promise not to be offended if you choose sensible.

A Late Resolution

I have officially given up diet soda. I've always known it was probably bad for me and I shouldn't drink it, but I've recently decided that there is too much cancer in my family history for me to be putting that much aspartame into my system. I will now get my caffeine from tea. I actually don't put that much stock in research studies as presented by the media, but it seems pretty logical that diet coke is bad for you and tea is good. So, since I wrote it here, it's official and I can't turn back.

Every Job I've Ever Had

Okay, so this might be boring to read after the brickman's, because our lives have pretty much gone down the same path since high school, but I may as well jump on the bandwagon, right?
My sister Claire was born when I was 9. Following her were Peter, George, and Mary. So I babysat fairly constantly from about age 10 to 18. Occasionally for money.
At age 16, starting in summer, I worked at Mr. C's pizza. I started washing dishes (yuck) and worked up to cashier. I generally didn't get breaks for lunch, but I filled up on handfulls of pepperoni and croutons, so that was okay. Unlike the brickmeister, I continued working during the school year and saved up to buy my own tv. We still have it in our living room.
I held that job simultaneously for awhile with an after school job at an ear, nose, throat doctor's office. That job paid $5.25 instead of $5, so I kept it longer, actually until I left for college.
My freshman year of college, I lived off financial aid and scholarships and never got a job. It was pretty sweet.
That summer I worked with my now hubby at the cherry processing plant. I worked there for three summers. I had one of the worst jobs there. Schuyler would dump the cherries with his forklift and I would spread them all out with my hands so that the bins could be stacked. The cherries used for maraschinos are generally pretty gross and squishy, so I got pretty filthy and wet doing this. I was the 'spreader'. I endured a lot of jokes about how I was spreading for Schuyler. One time a live bat flew out of the cherries I was spreading. When the cherries were dumped and spread, I joined the others, putting on lids and stapling plastic to them. The staplers were these huge ones that you swung down and hit hard on the lids. If you got a finger, it was like hitting your finger with a hammer that has staples sticking out of it. One time my sister stapled her glove to her hand and was too embarrassed to say anything so she just kept working. Tough girl.
When cherry season was over I worked as an associate at JC Penney and learned that you can be really dumb and still have a career in management.
The next school year, I aced a class called 'Dinosaurs' and got a job at the Burke Natural History Museum in the vertebrate paleontology department. The vertebrate paleontologist would give me afossil, telling me the age and genus or species. I'd write a number on it, look up the family, order etc, and list it in the computer before putting it in storage. It was way more fun than it sounds, although it could get lonely down there in the basement by myself. Here's a picture of me at Dinosaur Day 2001, teaching kids about fossils.

Then that summer back to the cherry job, then get married then back to school and the museum job. Back to the cherry job again and then back to school. I didn't have a job again senior year, but I felt pretty busy anyway.
After college, I didn't get a job, but hubby did. We traveled with the company for awhile and then settled in Moses Lake. I never did have a real job there, although I did attempt to sell Discovery Toys products. I didn't make much money, but I got a lot of cool toys.
Anyway, now my full time job involves helping a toddler to grow into a good and healthy person. I could wax eloquent about how wonderful my job is and about how horrible it is, but I'm sure you've heard all that before.