An Old Attachment

The original. My was red.

Ok, so there are not many things in my life, (other than people) that have stayed constant since I started college. I've moved from Victorville to the OC. I moved three times in college- each time gathering and throwing away what I would need in my next living space. Then the BIG move came and I stuffed everything I owned in my little Honda Accord and drove it to Indiana. In the two years I was in grad school I moved 5 times, in and out of residence halls, in and out of temporary living spaces, and finally back to So Cal- only this time I moved across country with a fiancée, our cars stuffed full and my Honda towing a trailer. (Yeah!)

Got me through college.

Then came more res life living where Joe and I moved 2 more times in 3 years (well I guess 3 times because we did not stay in our Colorado apartment long.) And now FINALLY almost 3 years ago... we have settled. Bought a house, got a yard, garage, private laundry room (only res life people will understand the NEED for this.), and its our to paint, decorate, and enjoy!

First flip phone. 

I digress....back to my original statement (I just had to, for myself, list my history of moving) not many items, possessions, or places have stayed the same in the last 10+ years for me.... except for one thing. My cell phone number. Yes, that's right people, I, in all of my adventures, have had the same cell phone number since I started college and pretty much since the beginning of owning a cell phone. See, cell phone use got really popular when I moved to college and by the time I was done 4 years later, I didn't own a land line. And so because of the fact that it has been with me so long I'm a little attached. Actually ALOT.

My first Motorola Phone. Made me a motorola lover!

Here is why... the phone has been my main source of communication throughout all changes. Its was my facebook before facebook. It's how I learned about lives of others. It's how I stayed connected to family when I was in the middle of nowhere. Living far away never seemed as far when I could pick up the phone and here a voice almost instantly. And let's face it. I like to talk :-) And even now, its where I get messages and pictures about friends lives all across the country.

Joe laughs at me because there are a few things in my life I get attached to and when they are said and done I get a little emotional. Like my first credit card. It was an Anaheim Mighty Ducks credit card, I got on my own, at the only Ducks hockey game I have ever been to. I learned to manage finances on that card and it was mine. All mine. So when Joe and I combined our lives financially there was no need for the card anymore. And I cried when we cut it up.

Razr!

And now we are back to the cell phone number. I'm getting a work phone and no longer have a need for a personal cell phone which means for the first time in 10+ years my phone number will change. Now, I believe that I am pretty adaptable when it comes to change and in most of my life, I embrace it.
HOWEVER, THIS. IS. NOT. ONE. OF. THOSE. TIMES.
 Joe constantly shares with me all of my technology options for keeping a 714 area code, or making a cool number up through Google Voice, and that Google Voice has visual voice mail and cool text messaging features. BLAH. It's not the same. It never will be.

LOVED this phone! I spilled water on it and it never recovered. 

And so I have to say goodbye to what feels like an old friend, a companion, and accept a very hard change. This is the quote I say to my students "the only thing constant in change." Why did I ever think my cell number would be any different? I probably will cry as I hit send on the text message and emails that will go out with my new number and in a few years it won't matter to me as much. But in this day in life, where moving has been more constant than staying put, and life has open, written, and closed chapters, I think you have to find something to stay the same. Little did I know that the number I was assigned in 2000 would last this long and mean so much.

Had to get because of the water spill. Did not like. 

UPDATE!!!

Google Voice is amazing! You can actually port your cell phone numbers to a Google Voice number and then the number is yours now and forever more!!!! So this is what I have done. No need to say goodbye to what feels like an old friend! At last is MINE!

I went to a crackberry for awhile... but secretly I always wanted an iphone. 

And then I found my Droid X.... iphone, what Iphone?

Hope you enjoyed the history of my cell phones through pictures. There was one at the end of college that I could not find a picture of. It's crazy how much cell phones have changed!! For fun, in your free time, try to think about all the cell phones you may have owned. Can you find pictures of them? 

My 30 Day Challenge

Thanks to my wonderful friends and colleagues at Colorado State, I was challenged to participate in their 30 Day Challenge Program. The idea being you commit to doing something for 30 days straight that will better you or society, knowing that it takes 15 days to make or break a habit. Welcome to day 10 of my 30 days.

Meet my friend... Mr. Elipitical. He's my partner in this 30 day challenge. Well, one of my partners. My 30 day challenge goal was to do something active each day for 30 days.

See before Mr. Connor came along, I was in really good shape. Probably the best shape I had been in since high school. I had lost weight, toned up, and was super committed to working out every chance I could. And with a free gym 20 steps from my office, it was easy to stay motivated.

Well then pregnancy came, and with it was the uncertainty of workout and the impact it could have on the baby. Just like with most things baby related, there are opposing answers to every question and you have to find what works for you. Well then work got busy, my feet swelled, and even walking became a chore so working out was not in the cards. Then the little man came and poof, its six months later and time to get motivated again.

So on day 10 I am happy to report that I have done something each day to be more active than a normal day (Joe and I walk a little less than a mile to work from our bus stop everyday so this is above that.)

Here's the other thing about this challenge, I HATE running. No seriously, running and I don't get along. Never in this lifetime will we be friends and want to spend all of our time together. However, running on Mr. Elipitical is teaching me that running with him is not so bad. So maybe in this 30 day challenge, I'll not only create a good habit but learn to like something as well.

What would you do if you could do a 30 day challenge? These are not meant to be BIG commitments, just small ones that might make a difference. A friend of mine gave up drive thru fast food restaurants for 30 days. Another decided to take one minute before getting out of bed to center themselves for the day. What's stopping you?

It's Been A While and So Much Has Changed!

Whew. Life got too busy there. I think that we've slowed down a little but I feel like I'm always on defense waiting for the next move to come along.

Connor will be 6 months next week... that's right! 6 whole months this cute baby boy has been a part of this world and Joe and I are loving every minute of watching him discover it.

Recently, in Connor's adventures has been in the introduction of real food. That's right... real, pureed, eat it with a spoon food! And just like his Daddy... he LOVES to eat!

So far this is the score-
Connor 0 Carrots 1 - you would think carrots are like chocolate to him!
Connor 1 Squash 0 - spits them across the room
Connor 0 Sweet Potatoes 1
Connor 0 Sweet Corn 1
(are we seeing a theme here?! He is DEFINITELY a Dinise.)



On deck for this week, green beans. Joe is predicting that Connor will only like the same vegtables as Dad. And so far he's right. Which makes this veggie loving Mom sad.

I call this one Sweet Potato explosion!

Look out! Spoon in hand!

Really Mom?! While I'm eating!

In trying all these new foods with Connor I've been thinking what it must be like to never know flavors or textures different from the one thing you've been eating for 6 months. It makes me excited for him.

And it makes me think, do we as adults ever have opportunities to discover anew again? Do we ever have a blank slate with no influences, preconceived notions, or thoughts about something new we are going to try?

Unrelated, kind of, there was a fire in the condo complex down the street from our house this weekend all starting from a BBQ. 8 units are effected, 4 burned and the others with smoke and water damage (I think that water can be just as damaging as fire- too much time in the residence halls has taught me that.) And now these 8 displaced families are trying to figure out where to live, what to do, and how to make sense of life.

While life may not be new to them like it is to Connor, I've been trying to put myself in their shoes as well wondering how Joe and I would do if everything we owned burned. Luckily, we (yes, all 5 of us, Joe and I , Connor , Teter and Rocky) we all coming back from an attempted hike (long story) to the black smoke billowing out of our neighborhood. So every person I love in our house was in the car, safe and sound. (I did run through my head the list of things that could have been left on possibly starting a fire in our own home.) And in thinking about it, there are very few irreplaceable things in our lives- other than people and dogs.

Don't get me wrong, its not that our lives are not full or rich- its just that the value of "stuff" has changed for me. I appreciate what I have and worked hard to get it. But if it was all gone tomorrow and I still had Connor and Joe and the dogs, life would be good. So seeing the world through Connor's eyes and the eyes of tragedy have just made me look at the world differently.

I wonder if this is how our neighbors are feeling as well... I'm sure everyone is reacting differently. Please put these people in your thoughts and prayers this morning as they try to make sense of life and learn anew again. 

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Free Time??!

I found myself yesterday with a rare opportunity these days. I literally had about 20 minutes where I had nothing to do...literally- no articles to read, no Connor around, dogs were happy, no one needed to be fed, chores done, emails answered, and the phone was not ringing. And I learned something new about myself...

I don't know how to sit still anymore. 

Joe and I have this running joke about my Dad. My dad is always, and I mean ALWAYS, doing something, working on something. His brain never turns off. He's gotten better at sitting down and being still, for a moment, then he's back up again. So Joe and I put together a to do list when he comes to visit because we know he'll need something to do (and we appreciate the energy and help!)

But as I sat down yesterday and found my to do list completed or stalled for the moment, I could not sit still! ( I had a momentary laps of "am I becoming my father" moment- which would not be a bad thing in many ways.) I almost did not know what to do with myself. I realized that I had been running at breakneck speed- and don't know if I needed to.

As a society, we applaud productivity, the ability to get things down, having answers quickly, and moving forward with completing tasks. But when do we applaud rest, relaxation, and time for rejuvenation? Do we give ourselves and each other permission to stop our minds and our bodies from the endless things to do and just be? And if we don't have those moments of rejuvenation how are we suppose to accomplish all that is asked of us?

This transition back to work has called everything I know into question- including the pace I run at? If you know me well you know I HATE running. We don't have a relationship because I despise it so much. I would physically rather do just about anything for cardio than running- so why do I expect myself to run at a pace for work, school, and other parts of life that I would never physically do otherwise? (The funny thing is I have always preferred to dance- what would happen if I danced my way through life?!)

I offer this blog as an opportunity and moment for you to ask yourself these same questions. And to take a moment and to let yourself just stop, and be.

I'm Addicted to a Video Game.

Yep. It's true. I'm addicted to a stupid video game.

So in our house we watch sports.... A LOT. We both love sports- not a bad thing. Well I kept seeing these commercials on ESPN for the game Be the Dean. And all I could think about was, yes, please. Well what I have to say is thank goodness I did not find this game while I was on maternity leave because I don't know if Connor would have gotten fed. (ok, seriously, he would have- but it's that addicting.)

Let me back up, I work for a college. I've worked on now 5 different college campuses. I've taken a class called College Environmental Theory where we literally studied the mission, culture, environment, space planning, and structures of college campuses. So of course this game would appeal to me because you get to build a college. It's like SimCity meets colleges. You have to increase enrollment, build residence halls, and the town around it. It's kind of like my job simulated into a video game. And to top it all off, Joe has a good friend who works for ESPN's video game division and helped create the game. (Mike's so sweet- he sends me all these codes to get cool stuff on my campus) :-)

So about 3 weeks ago I ventured to the website to check it out. And that was it. ADDICTED.
This is a list of how I know I need to stop.

• I sneak downstairs at night before bed to make sure I can collect money and enroll students. (I really don't have to sneak- but it feels sneaky.)
• I wrote Mike a facebook message asking him to change the dorms from the horrible "d" word to residence halls. (if you don't know dorms are where to sleep, residence halls are a place you live.)
•  It's on my computer in the background all day.  
• I am literally making decisions based on what my students might think. Literally this is what I thought today as I was trying to raise money in increase spaces in my academic departments- "you can't sell the coffee house where will the students study?" "that food place is in such a good location to the halls, the students need somewhere to eat" "don't sell the dance club- where will they go out on a friday night?!"
• I currently don't have enough spaces for students to go to school and live on my campus and I have no idea where I am going to get the money to change that.
• I seriously thought about getting a credit card where the prize was not a t-shirt or duffle bag but 350 campus cash dollars I could use to build more stuff. 
• I thought about how to use it in a class to help teach masters students about student affairs and managing college campus. 
• I really actually considered that these decisions I'm making are as significant as what a college president does each day.

REALLY!!????


At this point, I need to give up and walk away. Seriously walk away. It's only a game. (but what will happen to my students?!)

D-Day

Today is d-day in our house. First day of daycare day.

For 8 years I worked and ran residence halls and hosted move in every year for new students and their families. I hosted parent meetings to talk about the hall, safety, security, their students' experience, and answered any questions that would help make their students' transition as successful as possible. And deep down to help the parents transition be as successful as possible. And now, I host orientations again for new students and their families with the same intention of helping both have a successful transition to college.

And today I finally understand the feeling of dropping your kid off in someone else's care and having to TRUST that everything is going to be fine.

I used to watch families on these crazy moving days and just try to put myself in their shoes, but let's be honest, I could relate more to the 18 year old new student that was so ready for freedom than the parent struggling to let go. The other thing I always observed is that the students were always READY to go, often shooing away the parents, while the parents were hanging around and hanging around. In our parent meetings we would often give them a time to actually say goodbye and go home.

So this morning as we are taking Connor to daycare I started thinking and using all the strategies I could to make this day a little easier.

We had already essentially "moved his stuff in" on Friday taking diapers, wipes, etc to his room. We saw his crib and we had toured the place before so it felt more common and comfortable for us. Connor could have cared less. In the car ride, he was talking to himself and laughing up a storm. When we got there he was ready to get out of the carseat and play. One of the teachers immediately walked up to him and he smiled at her and that was it. Mom was history.

But in a way, I'm happy I'm history. Joe and I have never wanted Connor to be attached to us per se. We have always wanted him around lots of people, playing with lots of people, and understanding that Mom and Dad are only two people in his world of many. And on the way out too, Joe said, "He's going to make friends today and that's great. I want him to be around other kids." (I hope we feel the same way for first time all those friends' germs get him sick, get him in trouble, etc.)

And when we move him into a residence hall 18 years from now, I'll probably feel the same way. Sad that my little boy will take one more step to independence and establishing his own life but happy that he will benefit and learn so much from his time away from us.The difference is now I get to pick him up every evening, love on him every night, and cherish all the time in between now and moving to college.

So I'm doing better than expected and glad that he did so well too. And...the teachers told me I could call AS MANY TIMES as I want to today :-)
(sorry there are no pictures today-more to come in the future.)

Who Said Discovering Was Fun

When I started this blog, I thought this would be a place to share all of the adventures a new mom, family and baby would have as they learned and laughed together. I thought discovery would be a positive and funny thing even in the not so cute moments.... and it is most of the time. But I learned something last night that was a really sad discovery so I warn you, if your looking for funny and cute wait till the next blog.

Had to add in something to make people smile

Do you ever have moments where life just jumps up and smacks you across the face? It happened so quickly last night that I am still trying to make sense of it. We were on our way home from taking Connor to his first live basketball game at my work. I was checking facebook (Joe was driving) and I was starting to see posts from friends to one person about "sending good thoughts" or "love you so much" and I got this sinking feeling in my stomach so I quickly jumped to that person's facebook to find out he has cancer. And according to his blog "very aggressive" cancer. Smack!

Lovingly and jokingly this person calls himself Joe and I's matchmaker because he placed us on staff together in IU. The joke part is that he places everyone on staff at IU and it just so happens Joe and I got put together but needless to say, he was so involved with our lives at IU that we can joke and love him for doing this. (He was the main person that helped Joe and I do a double job search- I'll never forget our lunch where he said "wow, this is interesting talking to both of you. I usually smack Joe around and have really thoughtful conversations with Amy." Did he know us or what?!)

Go Hoosiers!

And if you don't know, moving to Indiana and living in this foreign place was not easy for me. I was grouchy, confused, and just trying to make sense of so much that very few people took the time to see though all of that to the real me. This person was one of them.



And let me just tell you about who he is... the minute you meet him you just love him. He is so personal, caring and warm. He'll remember your name after meeting you once and call you by it every time after. He is what strengthsquest would call a wooer (winning others over) not in a "hey let me get to know you to sell you something" way but in a genuine, I really care about who you are way. And now he has "very aggressive" cancer. Smack!

So in thinking about all of this last night and this morning I'm just in shock. Complete and total shock. Impacted beyond words. And from a few reactions from friends, they are too.


In Student Affairs, we often become family for a few reasons, one, most people do not understand what we do in our daily jobs, and two, student affairs is such an open, equity seeking, liberal, come as you are profession that we have to depend on each other sometimes to make sense of living in a world that can be closed minded, harsh, and not so accepting. (Joe and I feel so much a part of this family that were taking Connor to the national conference to meet so many, many friends and mentors.) So when a "family" members gets this kind of news it leaves an impact... I would call it a permanent imprint on my heart.

On his blog site where he will be writing to share with anyone who wants to follow him (love blogging even more now) he shares that he doesn't want money, he wants people to do something more impactful for their own lives as they journey with him. And that's what I've been thinking about too.... this is someone I aspire to be like... to love on people as much as he does. So how do I take all that I have learned from him and apply it to what I do? I don't have any answers for that now but I do know that this news will probably change me forever.

This person mentored me at a time where I really needed it. Who do you consider to be a mentor to you?