Olympus High School Class of 2000 Alumni Website

This past weekend I went to Disneyland. And I drove there. And I didn’t take any vacation days off work. So pretty much I did a total of about 20 hours of driving over the course of about 56 hours. And for the record, I wanted to fly. But alas, I was not planning this trip and so I was forced, against my will mind you, to not have an opinion.

I didn’t decide when we were leaving. I didn’t know where we were staying. I didn’t know what time we were coming home. Seriously, I don’t remember that last time I gave up all form of control and went with the flow. Of course I had my fair share of freaks outs because I had no idea what was going on. But once those past, I kind of liked letting someone else worry about the details. In fact, I really liked it.

Previous to leaving, my friend Diania told me to buy my tickets to Disneyland on Ebay. I thought this was odd, but she told me that she has had success twice with purchasing that way. And so I found 2 tickets for $110. Score. Only catch, you have to pick them up at a random office down the street from Disneyland.

When I told my friend J* that I purchased our tickets on Ebay and that we would have to pick them up when we got there, he was convinced we were going to get shot. I think his exact words were, “So we’re picking them up in a dark alley? Yea, we’re going to get killed.” I assured him this was safe and that I was saving us money. And just in case, I would bring my taser as a precaution.

So when we pulled up to the building and all it said was TICKETS on the front, he pushed me out of the car and said, “good luck woman. Don’t get blood on my ticket.” Wow, he is such a gentleman.

Wait, he is a gentleman. He came with me. He didn’t want to have to drive home alone. So we walk up to the front door and it says, “Go To Back Door”. I look at J* and smile, but I pulled out my taser just in case. And as you can see by the fact that I am actually posting today, that we made it out alive. In fact, it was the easiest transaction we could have made. No line to wait in. No crazy people pushing to get ahead of me. Just a friendly guy and his wife selling us tickets from a legit and successful business.**

Best decision I made that trip. Well, I take that back. Best decision was to sing I’m a Little Tea Pot to the Disneyland workers to let our group get into the FastPass line for Space Mountain. Yes, that was the best decision.

I’ll give you one picture from the trip. Only because it is the only picture I don’t look like a hot mess in.

Wait, here’s one more. I took a picture of the picture from Tower of Terror. I heart pictures where people’s faces are distorted and look ridiculous. Plus, it shows the great joy that only happens in Disneyland.

**This business in fact is NOT illegal in* California. Surprisingly enough.

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The money I saved on my ticket went to churros and coca-cola classics

The new year has brought us a lot of good changes. We’re both eating better, working out, and we seem to be getting more done these days. The long haul of law school and taking the bar and wedding planning and moving out here really took it’s toll on us for a while there and I don’t think either of us realized it until we started waking up every morning without something to panic about.

Next month will make six months of living here in Utah and we’re just now starting to really settle in to the idea that we live here. Kyle loves his job, which makes life a lot easier for me, and living with my family has been really nice (if a bit unconventional). Being relaxed and content like this means that we’ve also been spending more quality time together and also getting back into things that we liked to do on our own, before we started dating. It’s really, really nice.

Of course, the job hunt looms over me, but in the last month or two I started to do some odd bits of writing and freelance work just to make ends meet. I love to do that kind of stuff, but usually I feel like writing and photography and spending time online is self-indulgent and I could be putting my time to better use. Of course, I now have a lot more time on my hands these days, so I finally gave in and started “wasting” a couple of hours a day just being creative. When opportunities came to do a little bit of creative work, I took them, but didn’t really take them seriously. I mean, nobody really does this writing and social media stuff for a living.

Well, weird stuff started happening. For one, I started bringing in income again, which was a pretty nice feeling. Two, I started rushing through chores and errands because I wanted to maximize the time I let myself sit down and write. I made bargains with myself, like “Ok, if you do an hour of treadmill, you can do two hours on the computer” and “if you get dinner on the stove by five, you have a half hour to do social media while it’s simmering”. And every time someone offered to pay me, I just sort of laughed because why would someone pay me to do this thing I have to actively stop myself from doing most of the time?

But I’m an attorney and a mediator. I have two degrees and a mountain of student loan debt that I took on in order to get them. I’m not a writer. I’m not an author. I’m not an expert on anything. Those jobs are reserved for amazingly talented and creative people who live in lofts full of exposed brick and natural lighting. They go to conferences and people wait in line for hours to shake their hands. It’s like they’re on a different planet.

So I kept writing and being grateful that anyone was willing to give me anything, until Kyle finally asked me why I was still spending so much time looking for jobs and posting resumes. He figured that since writing was making me so happy, I should just put all of my energy into it. I pointed out that I’m pretty much nobody and everyone that says out loud “I want to be a writer” is suffering from delusions of grandeur. And then Kyle asked me, “What would you do if this was your business? If writing was your job and someone was willing to pay you to sit in this room every day and write?”

I thought about it and said, “Well, I would treat it like I used to treat my last job. I’d make notes and have a detailed calendar and I’d break up my day into different parts so that I knew when to be creative and when to answer phone calls and email. I’d get presentation paper and brainstorm all of my ideas in different colors and then I would hang those papers up on the wall to help me focus on my goals and objectives. And I would get up every morning to make sure that I wasn’t late to work and I would work until four or five, even if I felt like stopping, because there would always be just a little bit more that I could do.”

His response? Yesterday, Kyle went out and got spent $70 on a calendar, post-it presentation paper, and a big pack of Mr. Sketch scented markers because he knows how much I love them. I protested the cost and the ridiculousness of me putting any more time into all of this, but he looked me in the eye and said, “This is what you’re supposed to do. That’s why it makes you so happy. So make it your job and we’ll make it work somehow. And if you want to do something else later, it will be your choice and not something you had to do because it was practical and correct. We’ll cross that road when we get there.”

His confidence in me makes me lightheaded. I just wish I could pull some of it out of him and swallow it so I had a little myself…

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Behind Every Great Woman

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Philadelphia Sessions

Where to begin?

For starters I LOVE my doctor, and really wanted him to deliver me. Well, unfortunately he had two trips planned and was only going to be home really for three days between my 37 and 38 week. Considering the fact the he told me the middle of my 35th week, it looked like I could deliver any day, I was thinking he probably wouldn’t be there to deliver me.

He was leaving Thursday morning at 7am, so that gave me Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to get things moving!

What did I do on Monday?
*Canned applesauce *Made and frosted a million sugar cookies *Picked Pumpkins *Went speed walking for 2 hours! *Delivered cookies to neighbors.
Tuesday:
*Grocery store shopping *Made tons more cookies *Went shopping for “ghost supplies” *Prepared neighbor “ghost” baskets *Made a kick A dinner *Frosted a million more cookies *Went and delivered all the cookies

*-*-* Needless to say going into my appointment Wednesday morning, I had stayed extremely busy!

Well, Wednesday morning, I get checked and my doctor says I am dialated to a 3 and 100% thinned, and the baby is coming that night. He said I would probably start to feel contractions anytime, and at the start of my first contraction, come into the hospital because he thinks that once I start, I will go very quickly.

I am kind of freaking out that I haven’t had any contractions, so I went home and did the following:

*Ran on the treadmill at a 15% incline
*Went to lunch with a friend
*Came home and worked out on the eliptical at level 15 hoping to at least get 1 contraction…

Remember folks, my doc leaves at 7am the next morning, I am on a tight timeline here!

Well 3:30 rolls around, and no contractions. I feel great! My doc calls and asks if I have had any contractions, I say no, they tell me to come in anyway and get checked again. So I go in, and what the heck, I am dialated to a 5, and still haven’t felt one contraction! He said he had a feeling that I may be one of those rare people that dialate with out contractions… I know, lucky me!

So, I go down and get admitted. Get an epidural. I know, why get one, when I am not even in any pain, but heck I didn’t want the pain to start. Doc comes in and breaks my water, and I am already dialated to a 7 (still haven’t felt a contraction). About an hour or so later, he comes in – I am at a 10, literally one push, and she is out.

I was really really blessed with a super easy labor and delivery. The only problem is that because I pushed her out so fast, she didn’t have time to clear out her lungs of amniotic fluid in the birthing canal, and so they had to watch her breathing for a little while, and she threw up and spit up a ton yesterday (they said she is clearing the gunk out of her stomach), but thankfully she is doing way better today.

Name? Spence and I are really bad at deciding names. In fact, one of our nurses at the hospital was such a nag, every time she came to the room she was like “have you chosen a name yet? It is so important to get a name soon! You want a strong name. You don’t want a name that spells out bad words… blah blah blah,” it was so annoying. Anyway, we finally decided on…

TALLIE JO TAGGART

So, here are some pictures of our little Tallie…

Right after birth!

Daddy and Tallie bonding

Yay – My doctor was able to deliver me, and still had 12 hours to spare before his flight!!!

The cheering section!

Eyes open! Yes, she is a clone of Lance.

First visitor (minus fam) was my friend Sar. She has been the sweetest thing to me this pregnancy. She came and brought me a million bows and headbands, and seriously they are the cutest things in the world. Luckily she gave me 9 headbands, so she can actually wear the clips before she turns 2 and grows some hair! Check out her business at:
sallysclippies.blogspot.com

Leaving the Hospital. Welcome to the real world Tallie!

And finally, first time meeting big brother Lance! As Murphy’s Law would have it, Lance got a runny nose the day before she was born, so unfortunately we didn’t bring him to the hospital, but luckily he had cleared up by the time we got home.

Lance absolutely LOVED her. It was so cute. He kept saying “Baby, open your eyes!!!” It was so funny.

Family of Four – wow, that’s nuts!

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ThE DeTaILs!