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My Birthday in the Yucatan!

Thanks everyone for the well wishes!

I had a great birthday – one filled with family time, and memories for years to come. We kayaked the ocean, played with the kids, went flamingo hunting, mudding, ate at a fabulous Italian restaurant and it was great!

I’m overwhelmed by the community we share here. All the expatriates are warming up to us and it’s like in this place I don’t really know well and am completely foreign to – warms my heart and my 29th birthday a very memorable one.

Jr. Stared Me Down – and Big Daddy Iguana came home

News Alert! Big Daddy Iguana is on the prowl! He’s marking his territory and stomping home after I mistakeningly got in trouble by his little kahuna – JR.

Iguana on Rocks

As criptic as it sounds, I’m writing about the iguana family that lives by Jeremy’s Casita (little house next to ours). There’s a family of at least 6 that we know of, all sizes from about 3 foot in total length head to tail to baby gecko sized. There’s more I’m sure, but the ones we’ve noticed the most, have their habits, homes, and all enjoy a banana! You see, there’s Big Daddy… he’s the one that’s about 2 foot, and missing part of this tail.. he’s stubby so to speak. There’s another big one that’s like him, but I haven’t seen him lately, he mostly lives on the neighbor’s house.

on fence

There are several JR iguana’s that well aren’t the baby’s you see in pet stores but big enough that if they stare you down you probably want to walk away – that tail’s as thick as my finger. Today Jeremy and I spent a few minutes talking about life at the beach. We sat on the stairs and talked and laughed. Probably the first quality time we’ve had since we’ve been down here. Next thing I know we’re watching 2 jr iguanas running down the fences. Then the bigger one just sits and stares at us. We’re looking at him, he’s looking at me… and Jeremy, I think got a little jeolous of the way that guy was looking at his wife. We know they live together under the big concrete pad, but the funny thing is that the baby baby iguana’s live under a whole different pad. They are so tiny they are easily mistaken for a ghecko. Alyssa and I have seen the little guys – 2 of them hanging out by the car on several trips, I’d say they’re too young to take the Dodge out for a test drive!

And then there’s the stick. That’s all I can call the last of the baby ones. She’s smaller than a pet store iguana, but larger than the babies. She lives on the fence as we drive in the gate to our houses. Alyssa spotted her several dayz in a row, and I thought she was mistaken. Until this day before yesturday, when she said – “oh mommy it must be bed time for the little iguana”, yesturday the little guy had returned but was facing a different direction sunning. This is how come I know it wasn’t just a stick.

let me at him!

I’m not entirely sure the last picture is an iguana. Nevertheless – he’s about 8 inches in length.

Four websites for Yucatan Expatriates and English speaking Mexican living

Getting to Mexico is a breeze, moving to mexico is a challange, living in mexico – that’s a whole new adventure. One of which I couldn’t have done without the help of a couple of websites:

YoListo.com a great website for those who are living the life in the city of Merida or the Beachtowns near Progreso; one that i frequent the forums for tips, tricks, and events in my area.

YucatanLiving.com a site full of history, information, how to’s, how not to, and general who, what’s and whens to do things. It’s primarily for Merida residents, but since that’s our nearest city, we are often there 3-4 times a week.

Mexconnect.com – I just found this site, it’s got alot of ads, but some of these things are hard to find otherwise.

and last but not least I found Expatfinder.com to be helpful with moving, mail, insurance, and other references/ads for companies to help ease our transition.

I also now am using facebook and linked in as little update sites! find me there! talk to you soon!

Kayaking in the Yucatan Beach

Each morning I wake up to a new day. One filled with family, food, and now Kayaking. The beach here is very calm in the morning until about 2-3pm. So we have plenty of time to take out our double kayak and work our arm muscles until tired, or in my case, spend about 30 good minutes paddling, 10-15 minutes sitting in the ocean enjoying the gentle roll, listening to my daughter sing her silly made up songs and just enjoy the day. We go out against the wind to get the hardest part over, then we smoothly sail in on with the wind and the waves. Once we reach the surf we try to catch a wave big enough to surf us in, or in the case of jeremy – he surfs sideways or normal standing in the back of the kayak then hops on shore never getting wet at all. Ay yes, we’re learning to be beach bums. what a glorious life!

Chelem, the expat, retiree place to be!

In Chelem, we are one of the few families under the age of 40, that are expats. We are one of 2 families that have young children with them. So, I can’t wait till tonight’s get together at the Bull Pen. We will enjoy italiano thursday with the other english speaking folks in the area. The group is growing every week. I hear after christmas that the group will double or triple. Alyssa loves being with these guys because they give her lots of attention and she can play and dance in front of everyone like the entertainer of the party!

You see, where we are, is a small fishing village filled with lively mayan people, expats that live full time here, and feistas, parties, and get togethers every week! We love the life at the beach, we can walk to the town square, market, or little tiendas (mini stores selling snacks, drinks, water, ice). Some people love the beach here, and but many prefer the other side of progresso because it’s less congested, less cluttered, and has more palm trees. We love this beach because of the community. The beach is wonderful to walk on in the morning. We take a walk, then eat at one of the flavorful expat run restaurants just down the beach from us.

Next week, I hope to spend some time on the water in a kayak or rented boat to see the flamingos. They are like pink poke a dots in the water around our town and in the rivers behind us.

Life here is laid back, so laid back, it’s ok to walk without shoes on, wear a swimsuit through town, and go to one of many fiestas through the week.

the weather here is averaging 90 degrees. When the wind blows it’s wonderful, it makes life here cooler, and easier to handle the heat.

The nearest town is a cruise ship port of Progreso. It has about 50,000 people, and is the hub of all the little beach towns for about 40 miles of coastline. The big city is about 30 minutes away and is wonderful because it’s got just about everything one could need from home depot, to mcdonalds, a quality hospital with english speaking dr’s, and of course walmarts.

As much as I’d like to brag about what there is to do, Yucatan Living.com beat me to it. Just visit their site to see more about our little town!

Hope to see you soon at the bull pen for a community dinner!

Thanksgiving At the Beach in Mexico

This year we were blessed to have a wonderful thankgiving at the beach. My mom and I started the festivities with a hunt for turkeys, which at one grocery store the meat guy brought us a turkey sliced completely in half frozen turkey (one leg, one wing, sliced down the spine)… after that we found a pocito pavo (small turkey) at Sams club and continued the holiday tradition with Turkey, gravy, green beens, sweet potatoe pie, stuffing and other trimmings. Oh it was heavenly. We invited friends over for dinner and enjoyed a wonderful family meal my mom and little chef Alyssa put together. We didn’t get to enjoy the beach because the winds were howling but we enjoyed a nice walk to the town to see what was going on in the square. In town they were getting ready for a big holiday celebration for Friday where the town enjoyed 40oz beers, free food, fried fish, marquesitas, and many other festival traditions. We enjoyed the community parade, dancing with the live music and the celebration went on through the night! Today we will be going to see the windsurfers in Chixchilube, then getting our christmas decorations from town. This year we’re going to have a seashell decor christmas tree and probably send christmas seashells home to family since we won’t get to see them this year.

moving to the beach brought criticism

Doing anything remotely interesting will bring criticism. Attempting to do anything large-scale and interesting will bring armies of detractors and saboteurs. This is fine – if you are willing to take the heat.

I stole that qoute from Tim Ferriss he has an awesome blog about the art of pissing people off. I really took it to heart today, because it seemed like so many people where critisicing us for moving to the beach in a far off and remote location. We love it here, and often forget that people (our friends and family) haven’t experienced the beach life, they’re stuck in life 101 and only have 2 weeks holiday. We have a beautiful life here. For example, the window’s are open to let the wind blow through the house, the waves are crashing new shells on the shoreline, the iguanas are laying out enjoying the sun, and our children are singing along to Disney songs (ok only Alyssa, Bella is oohing and gooing and laughing today)… It’s like the world that we knew (life 101) has now become life 102. I really wish more of our friends and family could come down and experience life on manana time.

I know what life is to work work work, then give 2nds to family, then 3rds and 4ths to myself and body. In Dallas everyone and everything was negative. If Jeremy or I did anything remotely accomplishing we only heard the negative comments, which in turn changed us to only see the negative impacts while doing great things. This is all fine and dandy, just like Tim’s post – about doing great things brings negative emotions, comments, and no matter what we do – we’ll always hear the bad stuff. I hope to grow as a person and step out of that rut, experience the slow life then apply it as our children get older, and of course when we go back to the states to live.

Take a minute to read Tim’s post It really made me feel better about all the people, things, events that have happened over the last few weeks, and months, and years. It helps me understand why I’m so negative and how used to doing good & great things has turned me into miss negative. Winds of change are blowing those old negative emotions away.

Life living at the beach with the baby….and the 5 year old

It’s a beautful day today. I’ve watched the storm roll over with a light sprinkle, the fog roll by, and yet… now it’s as if it never happened. That’s what life’s like at 10am, when you’ve been up since 5 am with the baby. We’re blessed to have 2 kids, a 5yr old who sleeps like a champion, and a 3 month old who, sleeps, the majority of the night. so we’re blessed you never know one night to the next if we’ll go to bed at 8pm and be up at 3 or 5 am… and occasionally we get until 6:30. Life is different here with a baby. We’ve yet to find a pediatrician but there are lots of people talking about the great american style hospital. So for now, we’re only conserned about the well baby checkups. They have formula, and diapers here, they are different than american style, but yet the same. Enfamil Premium (which Bella pukes and pukes) and Nestle good start are sold here. I’ve seen Similac, but for now we’re working with Nestle good start, they have those comfort proteins that i think are easier to digest, hold down and consume than the regular premium enfamil. Both are being used by us and are the best of the best, we thank goodness they have them here in Mexico. Diapers are a whole nother ball game. They don’t have little pampers, and pampers cost like 3x’s as much as they were in the states. They do however have other brands we’re trying different ones to see what we do like. The funny thing is that they don’t have the gel absorbion like we have in the states. So a wet diaper doesn’t weigh as much but it does not keep baby as dry as my good ole pampers. One of these days im going to try huggies supreme, we didn’t like them in the US but anything to keep bella from having bad diaper rash is the goal. We’re trying baby powder on her bottom. If you google baby powder there’s mixed opinions of whether it works or not. Well let me say this, down here we sweat about 4-80% more each day than those 100 degree days in  Dallas. Her little folds get yucky, fast here. But she’s getting plenty of vitamin D here. The baby and I spend a good 10 minutes at the beach each day (usually her naked), and daddy and Alyssa spend 1-4 hours each day playing, fishing, or doing whatever at the beach. Everyone walks the beach here. We meet lots of nice folks walking, but that’s about 1-2 couples each time. We’ve had many compliments about how well behaved our children are and how everyone misses their grand children. There are lots of concerns here, drinking unpurified water, washing our fruits and vegetables properly, and mosquitos…… all of which are manageable, they just require a few extras steps in our day.. like not going outside at dusk without a heavy dose of bug spray, putting the baby in a mosquito net, and clearly communicating what is good to eat, drink, and how to wash dishes. We are lucky, we have city water, it’s not great, but its clean enough we can brush our teeth, and wash dishes without getting the tourista. As far as baby stuff goes here, when we need something special we can go into the major city about 15 minutes away and get just about anything we need at the mall or super walmart. Shopping is a whole different culture here so you go to the specialty store when you need something specific. So, life at the beach with the baby is realatively the same, baby’s cry, poop, eat… it’s all good!

It’s a beautiful Beach Day for Beer Eggs

What a beautiful beach day. The sun is shining, the girls are up and playing, Jeremy is working… I’m taking a few minutes to update the blog and get breakfast ready. Today I’m trying Munchego Cheese, with Beer Eggs… A touch of salsa on top, and we’ll see how it goes. This week I’m going to aquire a couch. I need somewhere to sit besides the bed and the dining room table. Between my adventures in breakfast making, and my aquisition of a couch… it’s going to be a great day!

having a baby 7 years after gastric bypass — update

well its been 7yrs after my gastric bypass, ive had two healthy kids and one miscarriage. Most recently I had baby Bella. Shes awesome. I gained 50lbs with her. Which is very upsetting after 6 yrs of being nearoy thin. Im here at the beach and hope to work off this weight by eatin healthy, walking daily, and doing more than ever. This time around, alot was different, instead of loosing 40lbs, i gained them of course. But it was more critical for me to take my vitamins, get iron infusions, and stay extremely healthy. We now know that I do not absorb Iron, and I am vitamin D defficiant. It was hard because i was puky the whole pregnancy and prenatals made me throw up. I tried every prenatal under the sun, taking them in the moring, during the day and at night to ease the sickness. I hated when i threw up vitamins that settled for about an hour in the tummy. Yuck. But, Bella came out healthy, happy, and about 3 lbs bigger than Alyssa. Which is great because, with this baby, I’ve learned so much that we did wrong, or wasn’t right (I should have been giving Alyssa formual from day 1). I’m thankful this time, that our pediatrician worked with us as I breast feed because I want to give her the best antibodies for the flu possible, but I have to give her formula (she’s 95% formula baby) becaue I don’t produce enough milk, or a well balanced milk. Either way… she’s good, I wish I’d known half of what I know with Bella for Alyssa, but I look at my long and skinny Alyssa and thank God she turned out great. It’s funny because Bella is chunky compared to alyssa, but the thing is, she’s right at average weight, so she’s not fat, nor is she skinny like Alyssa. She’s got a lighter brown hair, and toenails and fingernails that grow like crazy! She looks alot like my dad… and just as social as him! For those of you reading this post before or after you’ve had gastric bypass, and considering having kids please do the following:

• Take extra prenatal vitamins
• Take extra Iron
• Get sunshine, go walking
• If you’re caloric consumption isn’t 2500 calories, supplement with protein shakes (I loved Dymatize protein shakes, and their cereal line)
• If you’re doctor hasn’t dealt with a Gastric bypass patient or many of them, let them know that the diabetes test is hell on you (i assure you i was miserable taking that many sugars at once).
• Maintain your weight by gaining only a moderate amount
• for those of you trying not to loose more weight (as i struggled the first time, lost weight instead of gaining weight) protein shakes need to be your new best friend. Drink 1/2 then 2 hours later drink the rest. I know you can’t handle the full shake at once with your little tummy, but you gotta take care of that baby.

Just so you also know, the baby will consume vitamins before you do, it will also deplete vitamins you are not getting, during my first preganancy I was 1 yr post up (delivered at 2 yrs post op), She depleted my iron stores. I didn’t know this, so I spent the next few years iron defeicient and anemic. I nearly died 3 yrs later because of this. It was scarey but the simple fact is all I have to do is keep your vitamins in check by taking them, and having your vitamin levels (a complete B panel, plus iron, plus a cbc) checked once during your preganancy and you’ll be fine!

Bella's portrait taken by Jenny

yucatan state fair in merida

On friday we went to the state fair, just outside of Merida Yucatan Mexico. It was awesome. $12 pesos to get in (less than 1 USD), food was $15 pesos or $20 pesos for snacks, rides were $15 pesos — they had over 25 little kid rides, about 15 bigkid ones, including ones that would spin you up and down — they made me nauciuos just looking at them! The animals were gorgeous for their breeds. Its very similar to the Texas state fair, but more afordable. Alyssa loved the animals and the rides! I loved the time with family, trying my little spanish… we ate marqasetettas until we coulddnt handle the sugar! We spent the afternoon with mostly school kids that day, around 5pm lots of people started pooring in. The vendors were cool too. They had juices, painted coconuts, honey, hammock, clothes and furniture. We hope to go again before it closes. We think its only open in Novembre.

Italiano Thursday’s at El Bull Pen, Chelem, Yucatan MX

6pm- Thursdays.. meet us at the Bull Pen. It’s Italiano Thursdays and community meetup night. We all sit together at BIG long tables and enjoy good food, good company and lots of drinks to go around. Infact Alyssa wanted to play waitress so bad she insisted on ordering drinks for us when needed. So if you’re looking for where to eat just outside of Progreso go to Chelem on a thursday – eat at  El Bull Pen!

Thursday Night's hangout in Chelem Yucatan, MX

Our Move to Mexico! We did it.. we’re just outside of progreso, yucatan, MX!

Oh, my….the trip.
Oh the trip. Wow. Could it have been more funny? We had something like 12 bags/stroller/carseat, kids, us… everything. we had the maximum flyable limit and people raising eyebrows at us every turn we made. Mostly they saw us and thought… hey they must be good tippers! Which is ok. We moved out of our house about 2 weeks before the flight. We finally got the house on the market, expected it to sit for a while, and had multiple offers the first week… it was great.. a bidding war ensued, then after all the drama of picking a viable contract… the inspection came. We did need a new roof, even thought 2 years ago there was no hail damage and it was fine. Thank God for homeowner’s insurance. So we lived at my parents apartment and a couple of hotels for 2 weeks before our flight. Jeremy was working day in and day out to meet some deadline all the while working on getting us packed, moved, and happy. Everything is now packed up in storage, minus a carload, and plane full of our baggage… our cars are in storage, oh man that was hard to give up our newest addition to the fleet – our hard earned  BMW… we got a great deal on it, and one of those maintenance plans to boot… anyway. My parents drove the dodge down on a Tuesday. The radiator had to be replaced before they ever left dallas. I couldn’t believe. I was worried about my mom, and their trip because they had 4 long days on dirt roads, cities and places I can’t imagine. Our trip was supposed to be easy. 2 cars to the airport, unload bags, board plane, uh oh… here’s where it got complicated… oh man… we sat in dallas on the runway almost exactly 4 hours… they told us we were going back to the gate.. then within 5 minutes they said great news we’re going to houston… and we took off.. in the mean time my flight had already landed in mexico… so… when we landed we were the last to deboard… the last in line… and of course stuck behind a guy who consumed an hour trying to get to Merida (Merida only gets flights on certain days.. our next available was like 5 days later). So we were told they couldn’t help us at the counter we should speak with a supervisor. We went to the customer service counter to speak with a supervisor, and there he was again. Let me say – Alyssa and Bella were GREAT. Everyone was telling us how amazing our kids were during the whole thing. So we stand in line, wait another hour it’s midnight, we’ve not ate since 2pm… Bella was on her last bit of formula that was premade… We were given 2 options – fly to cancun, while our bags wont make it – in the morning; or fly to merida 5 days later. We went to cancun instead. The hotel they put us in… we over paid for. It was a suite, but good grief, it had rain leaks, and well it wasn’t the nicest of places. I’ve stayed in worse… so anyway… we get to the hotel at 1 am, then turn around and leave at 5am for the cancun flight. The cancun flight was just fine. We arrived with no problems, went through immigracion, and had to fill out a health form (for the flu protection). We went to baggage claim where Alyssa spotted our bags… all of them… everything… We were saddled with ton of bags to go through customs. We got a green light and went to the bus terminal. The bus to the bus station was truely the best option, from there, they handled our bags for us… everything made it we only traveled the UNO bus (a luxury liner worth the $60 tix)… all the way to Merida. It’s in Merida where things got hairy.. it was dark, it was 6pm, we were tired, hungry, unable to call anyone, and prayed we could find mom and dads house. We told them where we were going, and for the price of two taxis ($60USD+ tips) we got into Chelem, found the Bull Pen restaurant and got to mom and dad’s house with no problems. It was here that we left 2 of my bags in the taxis. My meds, and my purse with our passports where accidently left in the taxis. It was dark, they were small bags and… it was my fault.
I was distraught. No meds for my nueropathy, stress from 2 solid days of travel, in a different country, no passports, no way of knowing when parents where coming exactly. It was chaos in my mind. However, the neighbors were great – they helped us out, one took me back to the bus stop to try to contact the taxi driver, mom and dad showed up within an hour of our arrival.. our property manager showed up too… lots of people, lots of great helpful people came to our rescue. We slept at the house mom and dad built. And the next day… I walked around with a huge cloud on my shoulders… about 2pm i heard a commotion in the street… I looked out the front door and there was a hand holding my purse in the gate… I freaked out! My purse came back… it came back with trash, and my passports.. no iphone, no misc store credit cards, no pens.. but our passports and our visas came back! We lucked out! We had a neighbor translate that i still was missing my pill bag… the taxi driver said no problem he’d ask the other guy. After this – a huge weight off my shoulders kicked in. I was excited!
That afternoon we went to see our new house. It’s quite the nice little setup, beach front, office, shells, ocean, ocean… and more sand. I’ll talk more about it in another blog… but… to conclude the trip from chaos to happyness, my medicines came back as well. Another taxi brought it on the following day. It was missing our Alyssa’s Ipod and Leapter. I was just thankful that the thousand dollars in pills were back. The electronics we can replace. (although that leapster has been replaced practically once already – with all it’s games lost and charging station accidently packed). So while you may think that all of this is whining or complaining.. I’ve got two morals of this story… Number 1: We traveled like champions! and Number 2: no other place in the world would a couple of lost bags (purse included) ever come back to your doorsteps. It’s amazing here. The people are so friendly and outgoing. They are really nice. It makes up for the mosquitos, the dirt roads, weird rules, and the sandspurs!

One of my training video’s won an Emmy!

Dr. Brown’s Photoshop Laboratory won an Emmy! I think it actually won several in a few different categories. Congrats xTrain! You guys did great. I hope to see Adobe TV get some emmy’s too.

Dr. Brown – I know how hard it is for you to do the Photoshop Laboratory, but out of thousands and thousands of people that I’ve been around who’ve seen it – they all love it. Please keep it up. I look forward to seeing more!

Celebrating more than Independance day!

This week has been a celebration of life, living, family, fun, holiday, freedom, work, change, and most importantly – the life given to us by our elders, veterans, wise leaders, adventurers, entreprenuers, investors, creative gurus, and everyone else!!

Happy 4th of July! Party on!

Oh and wish me luck for the audition i’m going too… we’ll find out if i’m smart enough to be on the “are you smarter than a 5th grader” show. HAH!

I look forward to the chance to be on a game show, but… 5th graders aren’t skilled in marketing and design… it’s been few years since I was in school… heck my 10 yr high school reunion is coming up… wild.

SV

Beta Testing our favorite software…..

There comes a time in your life, when you’ve been at this computer biz for long enough to know better than to work with beta software. Well, i fell for it again. don’t get me wrong, some beta’s are awesome. Others i want to ask the software vendor how a kernal crash is relevant when i click the “edit” button. ya know? i just want to say.. i love testing new software. but can I scream now?

On the other hand. it’s free. what can i say. I earned it by being the guinea pig. now if only the developers like dealing with the purple haired chick who expects perfection – therefore reports the retarded bugs – like typo’s – or they forgot a rollover/flyout or heck my favorite – um – what language is that one in? OH! and another favorite… i pressed the button… and nothing happend…. oooh that really makes my day

If you’ve a software, and you want me to test it, break it, stupid user proof it… drop me a line. I love the thrill of rebooting 6 times in a row until i find a work around… is there a job out there like this, that pays good for me to stay home 4 hours, break a few computers and yell at the developers in user speak instead of code… hah

Oh wait. I’ve done that in a former life. Great job, great company… I forgot where home was though… and I began to know the airline attendants by name… or they just realized i liked giving out the little great job from an elite member coupons when i needed a different flight home

Now if I could only get on the lean cuisine testing team…. or the propel flavor test team… or the paid drive through lunch testing team…. free cell phones, or other every day item.. hey – where the hell is my new mac? I’m still on this uh…. yeah… we won’t even discuss how old this one is..

And that my friends, is the – it’s the friday before the holiday week – unemployed – job seeking – freelancing – smart ass – blog of the day! HAPPY HOLIDAY! Now buy me a beer!

Sunset photography

This afternoon we went to the park and took pictures with our new DSLR, it’s not new, but it’s new to us. I was surprised to see after setting the white balance differently how much better my pictures came out. I’m wondering – so how does one get into selling their work as stock photography? I was reading up on Istockphoto.com and saw that they even have a request list of photos they want…. wonder if i can make a few shots pay for my iphone bill?

Any suggestions?

The secret life of a blogger…

Yes. We all know that bloggers have a secret life- or a Secret to tell if you want to look at it that way. They can be anonymous, rip off other peoples work, write their very biased views on life, products, situations, people, or anything they want. They don’t even have to be ethical! But what’s the real secret? Well, some bloggers, like myself – aren’t getting published any other way. Now we have a medium that allows us to have typo’s, poor grammer, bad opinions, but freedom of speech so who cares what we right about? So long as we make money at this right? How do you define making money as a blogger? There’s several ways to look at it but for me… I’m not making money off this blog (unless you choose to buy me a beer, and remember – I don’t even like beer so please make it enough so that I can by a fruity beer – like an apple cider, or something of that nature, I’m more of a vodka girl anyway!) I do this, because, there comes a time in life when what we think, dream, love, should be written down. Now If I write it down in my journal – who’s going to read it? Well maybe my snooping husband, or my children after I pass… maybe one day I’d get around to taking excerpts and proposing my writings to a publisher… but more than likely… I couldn’t read my own handwriting and forget what I was thinking when I wrote it, and my husband would ask questions well what did that mean? (I dunno honey I had three margaritas that night!) For me – you know who I am. I’m Siotha. Google me if you must. Or just hit the about tab on the top of this page. In the mean time, I enjoy blogging. One day I might even try to write about products and things that I like for review. In the mean time – writing about life as a designer is my passion and what I will continue to do through this blog. Just remember, i’m very fickle and particular about when and what I do things… so if I don’t write for a few weeks – don’t sweat it! That’s the dramatic life of a Blogger! I’ll get to it when I damned well please!

A passion within… as a Graphic Design Freelancer

I’d like to make a quick statement. Right now, as you may or may not know I’m taking a break from xTrain.com. My hopes is to find that carefree freelancing passionate girl that I used to be with design, marketing, and life. With that said. I’d like to take a minute and write about what life as a freelance designer is like

Pro’s:

• Choose your hours
• Choose your clients
• Artistic freedom is your choice and not your client, so if the project doesn’t fit your style – don’t hassle.
• My working hours are 9 to noon, and 7-midnight when needed
• Spend time with my family
• Home office upgrades are cheap thanks to craigslist
• anything business related is a tax write off, as the more I earn, the more I spend… and the more taxes I owe.
• Working from the lazy boy isn’t an issue with my boss (oh wait, I am the boss!)
• No Degree required, even though I loved getting mine in Media Marketing and Management!

Con’s:

• Choosing a client when you need to pay bills isn’t always an option
• Clients come out of the woodworks wanting 40 hours of your time for something you would make $2 an hour for if you take them on and bill what they want to pay
• School activities sometimes get in the way of work schedules, therefore extra flexibility is required
• I’m responsible for: billing, invoicing, balance sheets, purchasing, selling, and all business needs – including finding resources that match the job at hand
• New software or hardware seems to come out every month!
• My iphone bill is getting expensive
• Security of a paycheck is only as good as the person who is writing the check – it could be net 30, 60 or even 90 days if you don’t have a solid contract in place
• Smoozing  clients is fun but not my favorite thing to do, every day!
• The only benefits are self created – be sure you’ve got good insurance!

Why the heck do I love it though?

• My hair color is not required to be normal
• I can sleep in
• I can travel when I have money (which – strangely, I’ve earned more frequent flyer miles in the last 8 weeks than I did in the last 8 months)
• No pressure of “the man” watching me
• My time with my daughter has increased 75%
• My stress levels aren’t constant anymore – they fluxuate with each new situation – allowing my health to get better!
• Somehow I’m spending 80% family time even with my work schedule – (My mother is a consultant who works from home, my father is retired and is home for a few weeks, and my daughter is out of school for the summer…. Now I just need to work on my time with my husband, besides in the bedroom!)
• I am 100% responsible, at fault or a winner when a project is done and over with. (I like to think 100% proud!)

What about you? What are some other pro’s and cons you like or don’t like about freelancing?

How do Smart People Defend Bad Ideas?

There’s a saying in my family: she’s so smart, but she doesn’t have a lick of common sense. Now, it’s one thing to sit and say that to another family member, but it’s another thing to be the one who’s living a life of this nature. I think it really boils down to an occasional – must defend smartness – even if it’s a bad idea – Logic. However, after reading Scott Berkun’s blog #40 “Why Smart People Defend Bad Ideas” it makes brilliant sense!

Creative people tend to present themselves in many ways. So Surround yourself with a mixture of creative types, thinkers, doers, and not all of the same “square” of thinking and go for the gusto! As you only get one chance to make an idea a great (& hopefully good) today.

Today’s the First Day of Summer Holiday!

Ok. So, most people don’t get a holiday for the summer. But this summer. That’s my goal. To work smarter not harder bla bla bla… no seriously. I’m choosing to work an average work week. Bring on only select clientel, and spend more time with family. This means. As I spend time with my Family this weekend on an already planned venture, I will leave the laptop, cell, and extra business credit card at home. I might even bring some suntan lotion and pray for a good warm afternoon. As I’m so pasty white from over 2 years without holiday, working pre-dawn till late night, minimizing time outside to riding in the car with the top off on select days…. that you’d think i blended in with Holiday Inn’s sheets! (and that’s not because I’ve aquired many many thousands of points lately!)

So today. Take time. Sit back, watch a movie with your children, play cards with your spouse, have a new flavor beer. And I’ll see you next week – maybe!

Can you Draw an Elephant?

Or better yet, have you trained your elephant to draw yet?

This is one of those videos, that in all due respect to animal rights, let’s not go there, but If an Elephant can draw, I think anyone can draw!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LHoyB81LnE]

Awards for High School Computer Girls…

Girls – Hey! Are you wanting to win an award or know someone who should?

The National Center for Women in Information Technology is giving an award to high schoolers who excel in Computing and Aspirations with Computing. This year the award will focus on six major metro areas: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, and New York City.

Click below for more details…

Award-winners Will Receive:

• $500 in cash.
• A laptop computer, provided by Bank of America.
• An expenses-paid trip, provided by Bank of America, for each awardee and a parent/legal guardian, to attend the Bank of America Celebrating Stars of the Future Technology Showcase and Awards Ceremony, August 1-3, 2008, in Charlotte, North Carolina.
• An engraved award for both the student and the student’s school.
• Inclusion in a video that highlights her accomplishments in computing, her future aspirations, and her participation in the Award events in Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as a copy of the final Award video.
• For awardees who will be high school seniors in the Fall of 2008, an expenses-paid trip for the awardee and an accompanying parent/legal guardian to attend NCWIT’s national workshop on Women and IT at the University of California at Irvine, November 5-6, 2008.