205lbs of Perspective

Celebrating the step. Most prospective parents can't go out for a drink to celebrate building their family! Adoption has its perks!

Last week, we roared toward our future with screaming momentum. Most of the week was spent by working all day and attending PRIDE training (a state required class for everyone looking to adopt in Washington state) by night. We finally finished up the classes Monday night and headed out for a drink and a late dinner to celebrate.

Tuesday, I had coffee with a friend on my lunch break and checked into a local Crossfit gym, which might be the next step in my fitness journey, depending on how things shake out with the finances next year.

Which leads me to two other big things that happened this week.

We talked with the contractor and got a quote for the house additions. It's a bit steeper than we expected, honestly. While it's not our of the relm of possibility, it would pretty much make us financial slaves to our living space. While we'd love our living space more, that simply isn't the lifestyle we want, so we're finding something in the middle. Since the government shut down ended this week, we'll be heading to the bank to see what kind of a refi we qualify for and go from there. Hopefully we'll be able to get the extra bedroom we need. (I'd settle for making the space a little more comfortable and finishing the yard, but if we want more than 1 gender child, we have to have a second bedroom. No ifs, ands or buts about it! Something's gotta change!)

The other big thing that happened is that I confidently stepped over the 200lb threshold! Usually, when it comes to weight, I'm not excited about much over 200... at least on the scale. But on Wednesday, all of my squat training paid off and I increased my 1 rep max from 165lbs as of August 26th, to 205lbs as of October 16th! Now, I was wiped out the next day that I could have sworn I was coming down with a cold, but it's been a great acheivement that I needed. Sorry - no photos of that mammoth squat. Trainer Guy was too busy making sure I didn't kill myself.

Now for the not so good news...

The last 2 nights I indulged a little too much in pity party land when I was disappointed that I probably won't get the higher paying, better benefit job I was testing for. In fact, even the act of taking the tests for it left me feeling a kinda dead inside. Not with dread, but with, "Here I am... pushing to excel at Plan B while Plan A waits yet again..."

While coding is interesting, it was always supposed to be "Plan B". I was always reluctant to even have a "Plan B", but, let's be honest, being a starving artist is over-rated. Having this job has allowed me to do a lot of things I wouldn't have been able to do, but it's never fun to realize that I'm pretty much at a dead end with what I can do with coding.

So I'm working on restructing my schedule - still looking for a job that has, ya know, retirement benefits - and going back to focusing on writing. I'm really looking forward to hitting my deadline this weekend and putting more time and effort into the various start-up magazines that I've been freelancing ('free' being a key word there) for. I'm also going to be making some time to work on the book I honestly haven't touched in over a month.

I'm also definately going to keep my eyes and ears open for a shift in careers too, so I have a paying day job that doesn't feel like banging my head against a wall. ;)

Hopefully, Sunday, in addition to the soccer game, I can talk My Sailor into visiting a farm to get some pumpkins and have some fun! :)