Category Archives: life

Mike Singletary is Going to California

I’ve been going through everything in the house trying to decide what to take to California. We haven’t even really unpacked in this house so it’s been fun going through the boxes, finding things I didn’t remember.

mike

One thing I decided is that Mike Singletary is going to California with us. There were only 1000 of these made after he retired from the Bears and I was so happy to get one. I love him a lot and since we’ve been here, he’s been in a spare bedroom, leaning against the wall, with the other artwork. I told David that we would have to decorate the guest room in orange and blue so Mike would fit in.

Then the other day, I was shopping at Hobby Lobby and I saw these:

lamps

And I fell in love. By the time I got home, I was obsessed. I must have them. I must now bring fuchsia into the guest room so that I can have a place for these amazingly fantabluous lamps that I cannot, will not, live without.

So they will hang out in the guest room with Mike. 🙂

Going through another box I came across a folder of things I want to have framed. In it I found this:

elton

Is he not PERFECT?!?! I will have him framed and Elton, too, will hang out in the guest room with Mike. I love the way this room is coming together in my mind. I’ll be sure to do an update blog when I’ve got it together in real life. 🙂

A Resolution To Keep

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I’m not one for making New Year’s resolutions. I’ve always felt that if you made a resolution it would ultimately be broken. Such common resolutions like losing weight, exercising more. We all see the kick off of those on January 2 when the stores trot out their “diet” food on sale and the gyms are all packed. At least for three weeks.

Eventually, the initial crush passes away. People let it slide. Resolutions are broken and another year is in full swing.

Well, this year, I’m making a resolution and I will keep it. In 2015 I resolve to not involve myself in Secret Santa gift exchanges.

Weird, no? Let me explain.

I love Secret Santa. I love taking the time to scout out the perfect gift for my draw. It makes my heart happy waiting to hear that they received the gift and to find out how they liked it. The remainder of the Secret Santa fun is getting a surprise gift that someone hopefully got the same enjoyment out of selecting and sending to me.

I have been a part of two Secret Santa groups now for the past two years. In one group, we actually use Elfster and the participants list things they would like to receive which gives you an idea of what to give even if you don’t know the person.

Neither of the two years did I know the person who’s name I drew but I still had fun looking through their list and choosing for them something that I would like to receive.

The other group is a blind gift. If I could have made my own choice of the person I wanted to have for my draw this year, it would have been the person I got. I was so happy. I already knew what the gift would be, I just had to find it. I had to have one piece made but then found the other. I enjoyed including a little description of the background of one of the selections as I knew the other would be understood.

Both recipients seemed happy with their gifts and, in turn, I was happy.

It’s now New Year’s Eve. The last of the deliveries have been made for the day, tomorrow is a holiday. Not to mention, another year.

I have received no Secret Santa gifts in return.

I’m not mad. Things happen, people get busy, sick, life gets in the way. But I can’t help but being a little bit disappointed.

For the past three years, one of my favorite events with Social Media Tulsa has been the time we spend with the Salvation Army helping them get ready for the Angel Tree gift giving. The group is a fun group and the cause, a worthy one. I love bringing toys that will go to kids who might otherwise not have a fun Christmas.

Next year, instead of Secret Santa, I’m going to draw angels from the Angel Tree and fulfill their wishes. Since Christmas, to me, is really about giving, it will be a completely happy experience.

I’m excited with my New Year’s resolution, one I know I will keep. Maybe the first ever! I’m also looking forward to an awesome 2015 and I wish you and yours an equally awesome New Year. 🙂

#NaNoWriMo 2014

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NaNoWriMo logo

Have you hear of NaNoWriMo? I believe I first heard of it four years ago when my friend Jen Luitweilter was participating. She explained to me that NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writer’s Month. And a lot of people do it!

I’ve had a book in my head for several years now. Back then, it hadn’t been there as long, though. I investigated the website and decided that the following November, I was going to sign up and finally write that booki.

The following November rolled around and I made an account at the NaNo website. And I chickened out. I hadn’t even written Pageant Savvy at that time. I’d written no book and I was terrified to write one. That no one would read it and I would be embarrassed.

Another year went by.

It was November of 2013 and I thought, “This year, I’m going to do it!” I logged into my account at the NaNo website and this time, I entered the title of my book.

And I chickened out.

At this point, I HAD written a book but it was non fiction. My doubts were huge and I thought I simply couldn’t write fiction.

Earlier in 2014, My friend Becky McCray told me to just write the darned thing and get it out. Don’t worry about edits, that would come later. Great advice and I did think about starting to write it then but never did. Things got in the way, I was still scared.

I put “Win NaNoWriMo 2014” on my goals list. Write Mrs. Congeniality was already there. It’s been there. 😉

This year, in September, I went to a blogger get together. There, I sat across the table from one of the Municipal Liaisons of the Tulsa NaNo group. I told her I had tried a couple of years to do NaNo but I had chickened out. She told me about the local group and told me she was going to hold my feet to the fire.

So this year, I logged into my account, entered a title, a synopsis, donated to the cause (NaNo is user supported) and began writing. Now after having written for seven days, my word count is just under 19,000. My dashboard says that I should complete my book November 22, eight day early. Whoa!

And you know what? It’s been fun! This book has been in my head for so long, it’s just flowing out my fingers and I like it. Bigger news? I wouldn’t care if someone read it! And this is only the first draft.

While I have a general idea of the story, I did write bios for all of the characters before I started writing. As I write, situations take place on the screen that, after I’m finished, surprise me. I had no idea I would write that. How fun!

I will win NaNoWriMo this year. And I will be so happy to cross two goals off my list. But I want to encourage you. If you ever thought you had a book to write, don’t be scared, sign up for NaNoWritMo and get it done in November. 🙂

It’s a Dirty Life

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I love this photo.

balls in bubbles

I took it yesterday after I loaded the pitching machine softballs into the soapy water to clean them. It looked so happy and it made me smile.

You see, on July 30 our new business, Athletic Mission Performance Center, burned. And there hasn’t been a lot to smile about since then. Geoff had just finished training Nikki and me. We were all talking about our plans for the rest of the day. Nikki went back to the ladies room and that’s when she discovered the fire.

It was scary but I think we handled it well. Nikki called 911 and Geoff and I moved quickly to get the HitTrax unhooked and moved to the farthest office in the building, away from the fire. I figured that we could save them if they didn’t get water damage when the fire department tried to put out the fire.

After we had the expensive equipment moved we got out of the building. I saw two guys running towards us. I’m not even sure where they came from. They were pointing to the corner of the building. I don’t think they knew we knew it was on fire. I said we were just moving equipment and getting out. They said, “What can we move?”

10 fire trucks came. It was pouring down rain. Our neighbors to the north told us we could hang out under their overhang. He continued to offer us anything we needed: a chair, water, the bathroom. I wanted to watch from outside, though. When he came out and asked if we wanted to see the fire from the back of the building, we took him up on it. We wove our way through their building and out their back door.

Holy smokes! I think I could’ve gone my whole life without seeing that.

After the fire was put out we went back into the building. Although the fire damage itself was confined to the bathroom area where the vent fan had caught on fire, the fire was fueled by oil soaked insulation producing the thick black smoke that left tons of soot all over everything.

soot

The restoration company, Blackmon Mooring, was there to help us pick up the pieces. They are amazing. They are kind, compassionate, understanding and smart. They told us that the soot would eat into metal if it wasn’t taken care of immediately.

rusted pitching machine

And things sat there. We waited on the landlord, the insurance adjusters, and inspectors.

Our insurance company finally gave us the go ahead to move our things and we got to it yesterday. We needed to get all of the soot off of our things that we would be moving to the new location and so, balls in bubbles.

When I was paying rugby in Bahrain, they weren’t able to grow a grass pitch for us to play on so they made it out of sand. But, to keep the sand from blowing away, they mixed it up with oil. After every practice and game, we were covered with oil. They told me I would need to shower with dish soap to get it off. Dish soap? But it worked!

That’s why I chose to use Palmolive dish soap to clean our belongings in the Center. Not only does it cut the grease and clean surfaces easily, it’s not toxic or harsh. It was a perfect choice. As I showered last night, I wished I had brought some up to the bathroom because soap just doesn’t work as well. 🙂

We made a lot of progress yesterday. It’s sad to be taking the baseball cages down when we’ve only just put them up.

David wins the “Dirtiest of All” award.

Today, our goal is to get the turf off the floor. It’s going to be another hot and dirty day but I love how our family works together. We help each other out, joke to lighten the mood and we’ve grown closer through this.

We may be down but we are definitely not out. We will be back soon and better than before. I am so thankful to Blackmon Mooring (especially Kelsey, Trent, and Armando) for their help and guidance, our neighbors who rushed to help us the day of the fire, our clients for hanging in there with us while we get back up and running, and David, Geoff and Nikki for being pretty much the most awesome people in the world. 🙂

Softball Is Just Not Me

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Now that we know we get to stay in Tulsa, I started looking for volunteer opportunities since that’s what I’m used to. While I was at Athletic Mission one night, looking at the facebook stream, I saw a request from Kendra asking for scorekeepers for the upcoming 16U Gold National that would be taking place in Broken Arrow.

Well, I’m not really too familiar with softball but since I spent so many years at the baseball field and I’m pretty smart, I figured I could learn how to do the job. I was scheduled for two games each on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

I was really happy to learn that my first scoring partner, Bobby, had over 40 years experience in softball. I had some trouble with the app and I had to ask Codi and Kendra for help. They were awesome. Calm and friendly, they helped me figure out how to fix the problems in the Gamechanger app.

I was kind of stressed that first day, not wanting to make a mistake but I knew I could learn it.

On day two it was HOT. It was so hot. With an excessive heat warning, I was so thankful to the folks who brought me water. Well, I was thankful all three days for that! Still, it could have been worse! I had the first two games and we had great cover with usually a little bit of a breeze. Although, I will say, that my poor right elbow took the brunt of any sun I got. 😉

I worked with Kim the second day and she was great. Her daughter, who will be a senior, has been playing softball for many years and they’ve always played at Arrowhead Park as their home fields. So she kept the paper score sheets.

I didn’t have to call Codi with as many problems and I even figured out how to substitute a courtesy runner all on my own. I felt really ready to conquer day three with hopes of not having to call Codi at all.

Day three was the beneficiary of a small, very small, cold front but it felt awesome compared to the day before.

At the beginning of the first game, the umpires threw a change at us with seconds to spare. Neither Julie, my scoring partner, nor I knew what he had said and it caused me problems and I had to call Codi. Boo. I was so hoping not to have to do that.

We got it all sorted out and continued on. At some point, Julie had some issue with the scoreboard and I looked up and realized I was missing two runs. The app is so cool and smart and I’m not sure what happened. In fact I never even looked at those numbers previously because the app makes it virtually unnecessary.

Another gal came by and deleted the game and reentered it so it would be right. I took that opportunity to go to the ladies room and when I came back, Julie’s sister told me that gal who was fixing the game was going to stay with us in case I had any more problems and that was it. I was demoted.

I never touched the iPad with the Gamechanger app on it again.

I was given the microphone. I guess that’s good, I do the microphone well. I announced each batter as she came up to bat.

Shortly after my demotion, I stumbled on one of the names and the umpire kidded me about it.

I said, “Everyone’s a critic”.

He said, “Now you know how I feel!”

Ha! 🙂

So that’s my experience at the softball field.

I would like to thank Codi SO very much for helping me with my technical difficulties.

Thanks to Bobby, Kim and Julie for being fun to hang out with, helping me, and knowing softball and the paper score keeping so well!

Thanks to all the gals who brought me water and lunch.

Thanks to Kendra who gave me the opportunity to be a part of the volunteer experience at Broken Arrow Softball. I do sincerely apologize for all the confusion I caused.

Now, onward and upwards I guess my next volunteer gig should involve a microphone. 😉

Rock Show!

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Monday we took the glambaby to see her first rock show – Sugar Free All Stars!

sfas5

I’ve been twitter friends with @SFAS for a long time and got to see them the first time a couple of years ago when the glambaby was only a couple of months old. I couldn’t wait for her to be old enough to go to the show and when I found out they were playing at the Hardesty Library this week, I was beyond excited.

The Sugar Free All Stars are music, dancing and flat out fun!

Before the show started, the glambaby wanted to be on the stage. Well of course she did. 😉 When they finally started playing, she was very interested.

And very interested in watching the other little kids dancing and jumping around. But when they had us marching, she only tapped her toe. It was like she had gotten shy.

Eventually, I picked her up and danced around with her until it seemed like she had fallen asleep at which point I handed her off to Pop Pop. But he said she wasn’t sleeping.

She put her sunglasses on and was observing. It was a really funny reaction but he said she enjoyed the show.

Now that we’ve been once, I hope that when we go the next time, she’ll just get into it like the other kids. And me. 🙂

If you get a chance to see the Sugar Free All Stars do not let it pass! You must go and have a blast. Like a big explosion. 🙂

We’re Not Moving!

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So after nine months, and suggestions around the world, we have learned that we are not moving!

As you may know, we moved into our house in Tulsa in October. And we have still unpacked very few boxes in all that time. Why? Because shortly after that, David entered discussions about a new position. Of course, I didn’t know this and decided that now that we had moved, I really needed to figure out what to do with my life.

After having moved and enjoyed the moving process, I thought being a Realtor would be fun but my Realtor (who is one of the very best in the state, probably in world!) is a hard working woman. I think that to be an awesome Realtor, you need to be completely dedicated and I just wasn’t sure that I wouldn’t want to travel with David if a Fiji, Malaysia, etc. opportunity came up. So, I thought that maybe staging houses would be fun.

My friend, Lisa, is a home stager in Oklahoma City and she told me about a workshop she puts on that is three hours long. She said it would give me an inexpensive idea of what staging is and if it’s what I really want to do so I signed up for the workshop.

The class began at 9 a.m. By 10:30, a.m. I knew this is what I wanted to do. I could “see” the things she was talking about and thought it would be a lot of fun for me.

At 1:09 p.m. David called.

“We’re moving,” he said.

“Where?” I asked.

“Overseas”.

“Oh”.

Wow. I knew I wanted to flip a house some day but I didn’t think it was going to be THIS house.

They told him we’d be going to one of four regions: Northeast Asia, Middle East Asia, Sub Sahara Africa or the Mediterranean.

Given his experience, we were sure we were going to the Middle East or Africa. Until a few weeks later when they told us we were going to Madrid. Spain? Really? Okay, cool. We visited Balboa, Spain back in 2011 and it was an awesome trip in a fabu country and I could see living there. It’s not a far trip, only around 7 hours from Chicago, and certainly more appealing to anyone who would want to visit us than Riyadh.

So we wrapped our heads around the fact we were going to Madrid.

The first thing I thought of is, who do I follow on twitter from Madrid? No one. Amazing. My main goal on twitter is to have friends all around the world so I can have someone to share coffee with no matter where we travel.

At the time, my friend Gini was preparing to release her book Spin Sucks and I’d been selected as an ambassador to help her promote it.

There is a group of 100 of us and we hang out in facebook. It was here that I realized that Corina was in Madrid! I private messaged her and told her we were moving to Madrid and she said that it would be nice to meet over coffee. Yay! All of a sudden I was happier about going to Madrid.

Then we learned that another division was interested in having David work with them. They wanted to make a North American position for him but if that didn’t work, we’d be going to Riyadh.

Ha! It’s all back to Saudi.

I didn’t want to get overly excited about the possibility of staying here. I mean, with a new house and fabu glambaby close by, I just didn’t want to jinx it. I figured if I got too excited about staying, I’d end up in the middle of a Saudi desert in my custom abaya and 140 degree temperatures.

So we waited. And the boxes remained packed. And the popcorn remained on the ceilings. We waited.

I didn’t really tell too many people because we had planned to move to Saudi in 2011 and some really fabu friends gave me an awesome going away party. And then we didn’t go. They were all so great and understanding when we learned we weren’t moving after all but I felt stupid. So I mostly kept this one to myself.

I’m glad I did!

We finally learned that we get to stay in Tulsa! David will be working from here! We were sitting in a restaurant when we learned the news and I’m sure the people there thought I was crazy as I happy danced in my chair.

I’m sort of sad we won’t be going to Madrid because it truly does look like an awesome place. But I do know that I’ll visit there one day. And we’ll have coffee then, Corina, okay? 🙂

But I’m so happy to be staying here. Close to Geoff, Nikki and the glambaby. In this house that we have so many plans for turning into a home.

Now to unpack those boxes…

Oh, Wine!

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I really love wine. I love a crisp, chilled Pinot Grigio on a hot summer day. I love a dark, rich Malbec in the winter. I love the way it tastes. I love the nice little shift out of focus towards relaxation.

But wine doesn’t like me. 🙁

<whine>

For the past couple of years, it’s really been a choice for me between a delicious glass of wine and an equally delicious night of uninterrupted sleep.

While I am able to fall asleep quite nicely, after a glass or two of wine, I’m wide awake around 2:00 a.m. with all the other insomniacs on twitter.

Apparently, I’m not alone in this. A study showed that while wine has sleep inducing properties, the alcohol interferes with your REM sleep so you don’t sleep as restfully as you do without it.

So, even knowing all of this, I sometimes give in and drink wine. And, when I’m up in the middle of the night, I realize what a truly bad decision it was.

Just when I think I’m an adult. Ha!

Anyway, does this happen to you? Have you ever thought about your sleeplessness and connected it to the wine you had to drink?

Please Don’t Waste My Time

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Earlier this week, I received a message via Linkedin from a recruiter. All in caps:

LAURI,

VERY INTERESTED IN TALKING WITH YOU.
CALL ME AT 918.XXX.XXXX PLEASE.

Okay, so it seemed urgent and I called her back. She had no idea who I was. I read the message she sent me back to her and then she wondered if I was looking for work. I told her I could be if the right opportunity came up. She wanted to meet with me immediately but I told her we were heading to Dallas. She wanted to know when we’d be back and I told her Thursday night. Could I meet then? No, we have a prior engagement and Friday I spend with the glambaby. So we arranged to meet at 10:00 a.m. this morning.

I got ready, did my hair (which takes a considerable amount of time), put on make up, got dressed in something more than the shorts I’d otherwise be wearing today and went to meet her at Starbucks, a place she chose.

I waited and waited and waited some more. David told me that after 15 minutes, I could leave, that it was long enough and I did. I gave her 20 minutes since I arrived 5 minutes early.

So I wonder. Why on earth did she waste my time like that after she was in such a hurry to meet with me?

I will no longer consider doing business with her. I’m not working for a reason. It’s so funny because she told me that they package candidates so they can get the best opportunity. “Because you just don’t know what companies are doing these days.” Um, yes I do and it looks like you have just done it to me!

I started being concerned, even before I left this a.m., that what she wanted to offer me was a multi level marketing situation. There are a lot of jobs I would entertain but two I absolutely will not is anything in multi level marketing or insurance sales.

I was prepared to turn her down if that were her plan. I do think I’d like a job but I’ve turned down everything that’s been offered to me in the past couple of years because I want what I want and not something else. I don’t need to work, I want to.

Here’s something I know. I am going to be a good “get” for the company I let hire me. I am well spoken, well read, and well traveled. I’ve worked for myself and I’ve worked for others and I am very, very good at what I do. No matter what it is. I have the added benefit of being efficient and quick and I don’t make mistakes by going faster than others. I just get more work done.

Before I throw my considerable influence behind an employer, I’m going to make sure that the employer is worthy of it.

I’m annoyed that this woman wasted my time on the Memorial Day weekend but it’s just given me a heads up that I really need to get more info before I take my Saturday morning and waste it on something I wouldn’t want to do anyway.

Respect goes two ways. I promise not to waste your time but please don’t waste mine.

Trophy Husband

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Wow! Today David and I have been married for 35 years! That’s a very, Very, VERY long time.

I think David probably deserves some kind of a large trophy (other than me, hee hee ;-)) for putting up with me for so long (would that make him a trophy husband?) but I’m going to give him this list of songs that mean something over the years.

1. We fell in love at NTTC Corry Station. This is a place where members of all branches of the military were sent for MOS training after boot camp. Due to the average age of the residents, it earned the name Corry Junior High. We spent a lot of evenings there hanging out at the EM (Enlisted Members) Club socializing and dancing. We danced a lot to Always and Forever by Heatwave and it became our first song.

2. Our second song, in the next decade, comes from Motley Crue. While I love all of the lyrics in this song, the line, “Let me be me all along” is particularly important to me. Even if I wasn’t the strong, confident person I am today, he was still always my biggest champion. “Knowing someday I’d grow strong” even if I made him crazy in the process.

3. Nothing Else Matters by Metallica kind of typifies our life. “Life is ours, we live it our way.” We don’t live like other people do and you may have thought we were nuts when we decided to live in an RV in 2012 or any of the other wild and wonderful things we do. But if he wanted to go live in a box on a beach, I’d be right there beside him. And nothing else matters.

4. We knew each other for around three months when we got married. “They” said it wouldn’t last, we wouldn’t make it. “They” – many of them – didn’t make it “But just look at us holding on. We’re still together still going strong” and that’s why You’re Still The One by Shania Twain is on this list. When I first heard that song I thought, holy moly, Shania Twain wrote a song about us!

5. Nobody Does it Better by Carly Simon because, well, um, you know… the spy who loves me. 😉

6. Sister by The Nixons is about being separated. Which we are a lot. The line in this song that really does it for me is “Here we are again saying goodbye, Still we fall asleep underneath the same sky”. That thought brings me comfort when he’s so far away knowing that we look up and share the sky because half of me breathes in him.

7. Well, as you know, we now have the glambaby and we have a music CD in the car for her. When this song came on one time, David made a crack related to a particularly icky situation and now it’s an inside joke. Every time I hear this song, I laugh at the bad situation. Cool, no? 🙂

8. I’m a big jazz fan. When I hear I Only Have Eyes For You, I think I’d like to sing that to David. But he’d probably put his hands on his ears as he ran away. 😉 In 2012, my friend Cynthia sang this song for us at a club in Tulsa. She is awesome, the song is awesome, David is awesome. I’m going to include the Ella Fitzgerald version because Ella is awesome, too. (I’m not doing very well at using other words instead of awesome, am I?)

9. So? What ringtone do you have for your sweetie? I have Let’s Get It On by Marvin Gaye. The first time my phone rang like that, I was in a quiet, QUIET, clothing store. LOL! It makes me laugh every time I hear it. And it’s better than the dog barking he has for me. 😉

10. Happy is the last song on my list. I have heard about this song for months now but never actually heard it until a few days ago. I love it. And I am clapping. We are clapping because we’re happy. I was super excited to see this song as an option at Jib Jab because it seems like a fun way to share the last song on my list. 🙂 (I cannot get this video to stay centered for the life of me. I guess it takes after me. ;-))

So there you have it! The ten songs that remind me of our 35 year marriage. I want to wish David, the co-author of my life and the most fabulous husband a girl could ask for a very Happy Anniversary. Thank you so much for hanging out with me and not giving up when I was a crazy person. Thank you for the boys and the coffee you pour me every morning and for making me laugh. I love you beyond all reason. And that thing about living in a box on the beach above? Don’t try it, mister. 😉

Lauri Rottmayer

Catch the Rottitude!

Category Archives: life

Mike Singletary is Going to California

#NaNoWriMo 2014

It’s a Dirty Life

Softball Is Just Not Me

Rock Show!

We’re Not Moving!

Oh, Wine!

Trophy Husband