Tarynn Paschall

Where I just feel like bitching. So, once again, I find myself here on my blog. Oh how I love you, dearest blog. I swear, people who don’t know me in real life and just read my blog must think I’m a really unhappy person with as much as I complain. But I pretty much reserve this for times when I am super bored, or super pissed. So, here goes.

Today is my mom’s birthday. Well, it would have been. But obviously she isn’t here to celebrate. She would have been forty-one. Instead, she’ll be thirty-nine forever. We celebrated it nonetheless. Just like last year, my aunts and Grandma came down and joined my sister and I. We went to lunch and then took lots of flowers to her grave. We let some “Happy Birthday” balloons float up to Heaven, if such a place exists in the sky. And we just sort of hung out for awhile. I think it’s good to have company today, especially company I like. It’s never fun to have people who you don’t like around, but unfortunately that’s part of life. I’m glad I liked everyone who came along, though.

It really wasn’t that terrible of a day, I’m just annoyed. I’m in one of those moods where you just want to tell everyone what you REALLY think of them. Lady with the bleached blond hair and the obnoxious voice: I don’t care what you do for a living, you are pushing 50, trying to look like you’re 20. And it’s just not working for you. Embrace old age so I can stop staring at you and thinking about how FAKE you look. Lady who pretends to care how I’m doing when other people are around, but not when she is by herself: I really don’t want to talk to you. Even if it’s just to say “Good, thanks” in response to you asking how I am feeling today. And let’s be honest, you really don’t care how I’m doing, so save us both the trouble. Guy who parks behind me and blocks my car in the driveway almost every. single. day: I leave at 4:45 to pick up my husband from work. Every. single. day. PLEASE park on the curb for once and save me some time and energy!!!! Middle-aged lady whom I have nothing in common with: I REALLY do not want to hang out with you. I have plenty of friends who are my age, and lots of things to keep me busy during the day. Let’s not pretend I’m looking for more. And anyone and everyone who ever asks me if I need/want help: NO!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I needed or wanted something, I would ask for it. I have a voice and I know how to use it. Stop bugging me and making me feel like you think I am incompetent. I am fully capable of managing all that I have to manage, and if at some point I become incapable of managing all that I have to manage, I have plenty of people ready and willing to help. You are not one of those people. So let me be!

Oh, and the SECOND I walked in the door today, the little obnoxious puppy my in-laws dog sit everyday ran into my room (where she is NOT allowed) underneath my feet while I was holding a gazillion things and could not stop her and peed all over Kaelyn’s rug. Thank you for that. You stupid, annoying little dog!

It’s not exactly the style I was planning on, but I like it nonetheless.

Well, I guess I’m just not meant to be a workin’ mama after all. As it turns out, my former employer has to work around so many school/other job schedules that they really need someone with an open availability. Seeing as my availability is not open, it doesn’t look like they are going to be able to offer me my old job back. So, I shall be a stay-at-home mom for awhile longer. It’s okay, this is the BEST job in the world! :)

Two posts in one day, I’m on a roll! Okay, so I decided to cut my hair. Because it’s flippin’ hot in Murrieta and I am ready for something different. And worse-case-scenario, even if I hate it, it will eventually grow back out. What do you think of this style for me? Not blonde, just the hairstyle itself. I’m keeping my natural hair color. By the way, the poll is completely anonymous, so don’t be afraid to be honest :)

I have been debating getting a part-time job lately, and it never made much sense for a few reasons. First, I’m in school. Getting a job would mean me being away even more (I already have class on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights). I’m not comfortable with leaving K much more often than that. Even though she stays with Josh while I’m in class, I just don’t like being away for very long or very often. Second, if I were to get a job, I would be making next to nothing compared to what Josh makes. And I would feel like it was a wasted effort. I’m still in school working towards my Bachelor’s, so all I have under my belt is a high school diploma, a little over a year’s worth of experience as a hostess at Applebee’s, 6 months experience as a secretary at a property management company, and a year’s worth of experience as my mom’s personal assistant. Quite the resume, huh?

So I have just determined that it is not logical for me to get a job and it’s more logical for me to stay home with Kaelyn. Josh has always agreed, mostly because he doesn’t want me to be away from K, not because he thinks it’s a wasted effort. But, school is ending in 5 weeks and I’m going to have some more free time. I couldn’t get into the summer class that I was considering taking (they fill up SOOO fast) so I’m a free woman. And a good friend said she’d be willing to watch K if/while I work. She has a four year old and an 18 month old, so it would be lots of fun and stimulation for K in a friendly/trusted environment that ISN’T daycare. Thus, me getting a part-time job is starting to make more sense.

I found out that my old employer (Applebee’s) is looking for a hostess. So I talked to my old manager, and she said she’ll cross-reference my availability (anything other than Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights) with what they need, and if it matches up I can have my old job back. If not, I’m hoping they might still have a position available after classes end (6 weeks) and I am available more often. So, I’m waiting to hear back from her. If my availability matches their needs, I’ll be a workin’ mama in a few short weeks.

Now let’s all pray that I can handle this and am not biting off more than I can chew. I tend to be overly ambitious, but I’m thinking that a part-time job and a baby is NOTHING compared to full-time school and a baby. And full-time school + K has been a rather successful endeavor thus far, so I doubt a part-time job will be too much for me to handle.

Hello readers! And thanks for standing by during my extended absence. Looking back on last month’s blog post I can say that I have some good news. I am actually in a better mood! So you’re in luck today. No sarcasm, no venting, no complaining. Just some good ole catching up to do. Where to start?

Well, we moved in with my in-laws! It’s going surprisingly well, which is spectacular. No major conflicts as of yet, and it’s been fun getting to see them more often. Plus, K has really enjoyed the company of all the kiddos (despite having to sustain a few hits from her two year-old uncle and a bruised finger thanks to a sliding glass door and her 6 year old uncle). Overall, it’s been a fairly enjoyable experience. Now let’s just hope we can make it work for the next year. As of now our goals/reasons for living with Josh’s parents consist of 1. Paying off my car 2. Paying off Josh’s student loan and 3. Saving up a decent chunk of $ for a downpayment on a home of our own.

School is grand. I still have all A’s, but math has been pretty stressful lately. I switched my major to child development until I realized that it would extend my college career by 3 semesters (a year and a half) and then I quickly changed it back to English. I’m not THAT interested in child development. I’ve been debating going to law school lately. Say what?! Yea, I know. Crazy career changes going down over here. But I still have a couple years to decide so there’s no hurry.

Kaelyn is growing like a weed, and so is her hair. FINALLY. I’ve been experimenting with pony tails and pigtails lately, and the pony works well but the pigtails look pretty silly and most of the hair ends up falling out. Do I care? Absolutely not. Because I can put pigtails in her hair! No matter how small and barely pigtail-ish they are, they are still pigtails. Even if they just barely qualify. That is reason to celebrate.

I’m thinking more and more about my summer plans and trying to solidify something and so far this is what I have come up with: 1. Josh will probably take a week off of work so we can go on a family vacation. I’m thinking something fun but close. More than likely Mexico. 2. I am going to spend the majority of my summer out and about. This will require a few season passes. I’m thinking Sea World and the San Diego Zoo/Wild Animal Park. Disneyland is fun too, but I think it would be too overwhelming for me to try to take K by myself, the zoo and Sea World aren’t as hectic. 3. I’m either planning a road trip up through OR and WA, or a trip (not road trip, air trip!) to NY to visit my LDBFF. I secretly want her to come down here instead since there is so much more to do and then she and I could road trip to OR and WA together, but her hubby is lame and doesn’t want her to. Party pooper! I’m working on winning him over. Everyone has a price.

Oh, not much. Just the usual daily boring-ness that is my life. I’m overworked and tired as hell. We’re moving in with my in-laws in two weeks. My husband got jury duty and apparently makes too much to get out of it for “financial hardship.” Tell that to Toyota and Kaiser and Sallie Mae. “Sorry, you guys can just go without payment this month, because apparently we can too!” Psh, right. My daughter is under the impression that pooping 5 times a day is the cool thing to do. I’m tired of changing diapers. I have somehow managed to keep straight A’s despite not really giving a crap about school this semester. My house looks naked and is full of boxes and empty walls. It’s depressing and I want to get off the computer/get my nose out of books and go outside. Too bad my homework doesn’t care.

Now on to the good news… I just wrote my final essay for my sociology class (it was a short-term, 8 week class and this was the last week). All I need to get on it to pass the class with an A is a 57%. Ah, relief. It’s starting to get warm again. I’m going to the beach with my cute pregnant friend, Lexie, tomorrow. It’s almost the weekend and I’m going to make Josh change every. single. freaking. goddamn. diaper. Spring break is not this next week but the following one. Dear God I CANNOT wait. I was overwhelmed with votes on the contact poll below. I decided to stick with clear ones. Kaelyn woke up and decided balls are the coolest things in the world. We got her one from Wal Mart that is almost as big as her. Endless entertainment= my new best friend.

And that’s my life in a nutshell. Check back next week, maybe I’ll be in a better mood.

I went to the eye doctor and got glasses when I was 13, but my little sister broke them in half a few months later and I have gone without them ever since. It has been six years! So, on Wednesday I finally decided it was time to go get an eye exam at wal-mart. After all, they have ads everywhere saying it’s only $89 for a contact exam. Sounds great! So, as it turns out I am not legal to drive in either eye (thank you for letting that one slide, kind DMV lady!) And I have pretty terrible vision. When she had the big lens thingy in front of me and said “Okay, this is what 20/20 vision looks like” I thought, okay. That’s cool I guess? No big deal. Then she moved the lens away and the letters on the wall totally disappeared. They were so small and my vision was so poor that I couldn’t even tell there were letters, much less see WHICH letters they were. It was crazy! Oh and I also have an astigmatism in my right eye, which means I have to pay more for contacts because my eye is shaped like a football instead of being perfectly round. Weird. It totally reminded me of that corny acu-clear commercial with the twin blondes who are way too bubbly and giggly. You know that really obnoxious one that ends with “So which one has the astigmatism? hehe, hehe, hehe!!”

But anyways, I was fitted for contacts and now I can see everything perfectly. It is so weird after having been unable to see for the past six years. I’m still trying to get used to the fact that trees from a distance, do indeed have leaves, and the fact that I can see those leaves! And Josh is very excited because I can now see a difference between the HD channels and the regular channels and I have agreed to make sure I record only HD. This was a big issue before because they both looked the same to me and I would record whichever one I found first (usually the regular channel because the HD channels are way up in the 400s) and Josh would get mad every time he had to watch blurry TV. Now, I too can tell that it is blurry, and Josh is oh so grateful for the eye doctor at Wal-Mart.

So on to the point. I need you, my wonderful readers!! :) To tell me what you think about colored contacts. I was thinking about getting blue ones because my eyes are green-ish blue, and I would rather them be one color than a mixture of two. I never know what to write on DMV papers and other things that ask for eye color. Apparently you have to pick one, you can’t just write blue/green and it always throws me off. Some of my paperwork says blue eyes and some says green. I like to keep things interesting. I think they are more green than blue, but whatever. So, the lovely wal-mart eye doc gave me some sample colored contacts and I tried them out. I tried blue and green and I’m not really sold on either pair. The blue ones look WEIRD and the green ones don’t change much, they just make my eyes a little brighter. So I’m thinking I will either just keep the regular, non-colored ones or I will maaaaybe get the green ones. But, I thought I’d ask for outside opinions. So what do you think?

*Edited to add a poll instead of just pictures. Now even the lurkers who are too embarrassed to post comments can vote too. It’s totally anonymous, by the way**

Our lease on our apartment is up on March 31st, and we’ve been trying to figure out what we are going to do for quite some time now. We love it here! It’s a brand new apartment complex, and everything is really nice. Washers and dryers are included in every unit, as is an attached garage and a little patio. There is a gym and two pools in our complex, and it’s a gated  community -which I REALLY like! But, it is only two bedrooms, and there is only a little patio- as opposed to a big backyard. We really want a big backyard for Kaelyn to play in, and we need a three bedroom, because we are planning on adding to our family very soon :)

So, we’ve been looking around. We’ve found quite a few rental homes that seem really nice and doable, so we were planning on moving into one when our lease is up. Then we got an offer to rent the house that I grew up in, which would be wonderful. It’s an older house and it’s on the small side (built in the late 1980s, 1650 sq. ft.), but it is 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, and it has a nice yard. If we were to rent this home, we would be able to stay there long-term (5+ years)  because the owner has no intention of using it for anything other than a rental. Plus, I already know all the neighbors and it is zoned for the best schools in the district, which would be great if we stayed there until we buy a house of our own!

And then we were presented with an offer to rent a much larger, much newer home (built in 2005, 3400 sq.ft.) that has 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms for the same price as the house I grew up in. Obviously we were thrilled, but the only downside is that it is in Wildomar, not Murrieta. I would much rather be in Murrieta, especially if we might be there for a few years. Just because I want Kaelyn in the Murrieta School District, but I guess we could address that once we get to it. And if I am teaching by then getting a transfer shouldn’t be much of an issue. Well, anyways, with this house we would also have the option for it to be a rent to buy. Which would be even BETTER!

The house that I grew up in is not available until the current tenant’s lease is up in October, and the other home does not have a time frame as to when it will be available. It’s a complicated situation, but basically it could be next month or it could be next year. I don’t think it will be any farther than a year away, though.

So we started thinking, and obviously the bigger newer home makes more sense, but we definitely need something for the time between our lease expiring here and us being able to move into the home. We don’t want to sign another year long, or even six month long lease, because we don’t know when the house will be available, and we’d hate to miss out on the opportunity just because we are stuck in a lease. So, we decided to move in with my in-laws. They have a detached room that they told us we could rent out for a couple hundred dollars a month. If we did this, we would be able to save up quite a bit of money while we wait for the house to become available, and we would feel more comfortable jumping into such a big commitment. Without this buffer, we would be stretching ourselves pretty thin once we move into the house.

So, we got to thinking that maybe it would be best to just live with Josh’s parents for awhile and pay some things off. We have three and a half years left of car payments until we have paid off my car, and Josh’s student loans are currently on a 10-year payoff plan, so we have another 8 years for that. But, if we were to stay with his parents and put all of the money we are used to paying on rent into savings then we could have the car paid off by December of this year, and the student loans paid off by April 1, 2011. So, after a year of living with his parents we could be entirely debt-free, and that would free up quite a bit of extra money every month since we would no longer have those monthly payments. Then, renting the bigger home, or even just moving forward with buying a home of our own would be no problem at all.

So, we talked to Josh’s parents about it and they aren’t so sure about us living with them for that long. Since two different families living under one roof can easily cause disagreements and tension, they don’t want to jeopardize our relationship with them by living together for so long. So, they want to take it a couple months at a time and see how things go.

So as of now that is the plan. Ideally, we would LOVE to be able to stay with his parents for a year and a half and pay everything off and then have a significant chunk of money in savings to use as a down payment on a home of our own, but if things don’t go too well while we are living with them then we will have to explore other options. More than likely, if the house is still available by April 1, 2011 then we will end up moving into the newer bigger house with a rent-to-buy plan.

But either way, we are moving in with my in-laws on March 31st. It is going to be my father-in-law, mother-in-law, 5 little sibling-in-laws (aged 14, 11, 8, 6, and 2) Josh, Kaelyn, and me all living together. That is a lot of Paschalls! So wish us luck, lol! :)

I woke up around 9am this morning (thank you, Kaelyn, for letting mommy sleep in!) and was shocked when I looked out the window. What? Why in the heck is it so bright? I thought it was supposed to rain all weekend! So I bugged Josh about it. “Babe, what the heck! It’s sunny outside. Sunnier than yesterday. And yesterday was supposed to be sunny. Today was supposed to be rainy!” Then he told me that it rained last night and that made me feel a little better. At least the weather man didn’t totally fail.

So anyways, I was bummed about the lack of rain, but then I thought to myself, “Hey, this could be a good thing! We should take advantage of this sunny day and do something fun- outdoors!” And I thought for about 5 minutes before I deciding that I suck at coming up with ideas of fun things to do. Then I walked over to the computer and googled “things to do in southern california.” Yes, I’m serious. Yes, I have lived here for 19 years. Don’t judge.

And my search results turned up a bunch of things that are either not that great, way overpriced, not baby friendly, or awesome but we have already done them a million and a half times. Disneyland, SeaWorld, San Diego Zoo, Knott’s Berry Farm, a number of beaches. Same old same old. Blah, blah, blah. Then I found a link that said “Free attractions” and thought, “Oooh, yea!” Sure enough, the first result was Chinatown in LA. A place I have only been once, and Josh/Kaelyn have never been to before. Upon further examination of their website I discovered today was the day of the annual Golden Dragon parade. Even better!!

So we got ready, packed up and headed out. Three hours later we reached Chinatown. The GPS on Josh’s phone took us to some winery near downtown LA, not Chinatown. Then we got stuck in traffic while driving around aimlessly trying to find the right place.  All the roads were closed down because of the parade so we really didn’t have many options and we drove around in circles in RIDICULOUS traffic for what seemed like forever. Then we finally found it but there was no parking to be found. Well,  I turned down some random alley road thingy that was literally RIGHT down the street from Chinatown, like less than a block away and voila! A truck pulled out as I pulled in. Best. Parking. Spot. Ever.

The parade ended before we even got there, but we still had lots of fun. We bought K a Chinese outfit with matching shoes, an umbrella, and a little windmill thingy that she couldn’t live without (a.k.a she picked up out of a box at some random vendor stand and refused to put back down). We walked around for awhile checking out the shops, let K ride on all of the little 50 cent rides, and we had dinner at an extremely authentic Chinese place. I had shrimp with cashews and Josh had lemon chicken. Yummmy! :D