Turning 29 again & Sonogram!

I'm feeling good today!
Working backwards: I just finished a project! It's a gift, so I won't post much about it yet, but I should see the recipient & give it to her on Friday.

Before that, I made plans with a friend from college to take our kids to the zoo together to see the new baby tigers & go to a paint your own ceramics store sometime before my half-price voucher expires (Sept 22). :) I haven't seen her in a long time or met her twins, so I'm excited... plus, tigers are my favorite animals, so yay for baby tigers! :D

Earlier today, I took my car in for it's 30,000 mile tune-up & got the whole thing done for half-price! My hubby recently bought another Lancer from the same dealership we got mine from & there was an issue with them repeatedly cashing his post-dated check prematurely along with some other issue(s) I think, so they said they'd comp our next service visit. My car was overdue for this & we'd been putting it off because of how much it would cost, so we asked if we could use it on my car & they said we could! Granted, they only covered half, but that was a significant amount, so we're happy! :D

Yesterday, We went & got the sonogram to find out what the baby is! We don't know yet, but we will find out on Friday! We had the sonographer write it down & put it in two envelopes & mailed one to my best friend, who'll make either a pink or blue cake so we can find out when we cut into it at our baby "sprinkle" party. :D The other one we held onto as back-up because we know USPS is not infallible. ;)
BABY! :D

Monday, Amber started gymnastics again. We switched to Thursdays & I hope it's not as crazy then! It was pure mayhem & hot as a sauna in there & this pregnant mama had a hard time keeping up with nearly a dozen 2yos running around! Amber had a lot of fun, though & did very well, considering.

I also babysat (my usual charge) in the morning. We had a pretty good day. He took a nearly 2hr long nap for me!

Monday was my birthday. I turned thirty. I've been half-jokingly saying that I was turning 29 again. Through most of my twenties I had a hard time feeling very grown-up. I was in college much of that time & continued to work in academia until the summer after Amber was born. I felt like I did a lot of growing up, fast, when my dad died & I had to manage his estate & settle his divorce & all that. Plus, that was the same time Paul & I got married & then, a little over a year later, bought our house. All that & now having kids has made me feel more like an adult, but I was just coming to terms with being a twenty-something when that time was over & suddenly I'm in a whole new decade! Maybe by the time I'm 40 I'll be used to the idea of being in my thirties. ;) Oh well, it's not like I've thought of thirty as "old" or anything (at least, not since I was a kid)just a milestone I don't feel like I should have reached already. I guess part of it is that I'm not where I thought I'd be academically & career-wise. I always expected I'd get a doctorate or at least a master's degree & work in some suitably professional field related to my area of study... and here I'm a stay-at-home mom with a virtually unused bachelor's degree. *Shrug* I doubt I'd change anything significant if I got a do-over, but I am definitely not where I expected to be.
The big thing is, I am well aware that I could go back to school later & pursue those higher degrees, but I have no idea what direction I'd want to go in! I have too many interests & some of them would require moving away from where I am now, which I don't like the idea of being further away from family, or uprooting my kids. Or they're require specific education or experience I don't have. I could end up starting practically from scratch. That's not ideal either. The one thing that's the closest, most feasible in those things is pursuing a master's in art at the local state college. That would require getting more focused & organized with my art, so that I actually have a portfolio & deciding what I would DO with a master's in art. There's also the option of just getting more focused & organized with my art & making a name for myself as an artist, but I have barely begun to do that as a jewelry-maker & the business side of things is just NOT my forte! I wish I could just afford right off the bat to hire someone to do the marketing & book-keeping for me! I hate choosing prices (it's hard enough choosing to part with my creations, let alone trying to put a monetary value on them!) and I am not naturally organized. I don't keep track of time or costs very well when creating (whether it falls in the realm of "craft" or "art") and I hate talking myself up or coming up with things like artist's statements. A bio I can handle, but trying to make myself sound grand & inspiring... well... Yeah, not so much.

So, anyway. I didn't think I'd go into that whole rant, but I'm still in a good mood today... even though I promised myself I'd pick up all kiddo's toys so hubby could vacuum & I have done no such thing... There's time yet. ;)