A Box of Crackers

I woke up this morning and found that I've lost 2 lbs! That's a large box of crackers! (I know that's silly, but I like to visualize things.) Understandably, I'm pretty excited.

Since moving here, I'd put on about 10 lbs., and it seemed like half of those I put on since I found out that Todd and I would be going to the Air Force JAG dining out. So, instead of really getting to work and losing weight, I ended up gaining weight! Now my goal is to try to get back to what I was when I originally wanted to lose the weight before the April 8th dinner.

I'm a little upset at myself, but I'm on the right track now. Having my spring break has really helped, since I actually have some real 'free' time. Hopefully I'll be able to keep this going.

Orange sweater

For the last 5 or 6 years, I have been wanting an orange sweater, but I had very specific ideas of what it should look like. I wanted a long sleeved, hooded, knit sweater, and I wanted it to be a certain shade of orange. I've looked in stores and online, but I never found anything that was right. I found orange sweatshirt hoodies, orange knit sweaters with short sleeves or the sweater itself was too short, orange knit sweaters with no hood, or perfect sweaters in EVERY color of the rainbow except for orange. I began to think my sweater didn't exist.

Well, last fall I found my orange sweater. When I was outside waiting to pick my kids up from school, I saw my friend, Rebekah, wearing 'my' orange sweater. (It still wasn't exact, the shade was slightly different, but pretty darn close.) Naturally, I asked her where she bought it, but it was a while ago, so the store no longer had them. I just resigned myself to the fact that I may never get my perfect orange sweater.

Then, last night, Rebekah asked me if I ever got the orange sweater that her husband gave to Todd. . . . What?! I was so excited! She was giving me her orange sweater?! I told her that, no, I hadn't gotten it, otherwise I definitely would have said something to her. She said that she had her husband give it to Todd back before Christmas! I called Todd to see if he had ever gotten it, and he didn't remember getting it. Gary, her husband, said that he remembered giving it to Todd. Where was my sweater?! We thought that maybe it was left at the church, so today, after church was over, I went to the lost and found to look for it, AND IT WAS THERE!!! I'm sure some of you are reading this thinking, 'Really? All this for a sweater?'

(Like I said, the color isn't the exact shade

I wanted, and it's really hard to tell the color

from the picture, but I love it.)

Well, maybe it doesn't make much sense to others, but I am SO excited to have my sweater! :)

Observation

I think I'm a pretty nice person. I always try to be nice to others, not put people down, and I try to never be condescending to people or make myself sound better than them (not too hard, since I'm usually not). Yet, there have been a couple of times during the last couple of semesters that I can tell that people think I'm acting like I'm better than them. (Who knows, maybe elsewhere, but this is where I've really noticed it.)

If I answer too many questions, if I try to explain why I think something is a certain way, or if I just do well, there's always someone who doesn't like it. Instead of people thinking, 'wow, good job', there are always those who think, 'she thinks she's so great' or 'she thinks she's better than me'. On the contrary. I don't think about them at all. What they don't seem to get is that I don't care if they do or don't understand the material; I don't care if they do or don't do well. If they do - great, good for them, I'm happy. But I'm there for me. I ask and answer questions because I want to learn. I work hard and try to do my best because I want to make sure I really understand everything that I'm being taught, not just enough to get by. I don't do any of it to make myself seem better than others. Yet, that's the way it's perceived.

But I realize that, to some extent, this is human nature. How many times do we see someone who seems perfect--perfect children, they never seem to get angry, beautiful house that's clean all of the time, smart, talented--yet, instead of thinking, 'wow, good job', we think, 'she's so perfect' and try to find some kind of flaw in the person. I try not to, but I know I'm guilty of that. Why can't we be happy for others and cheer them on for being somewhere that we hope to be someday.