Ramblings of a Lunch Lady and her crazy family

The Miranda Obseesion by Bryan Burrough

2012-01-13T21:56:00.001-05:00

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13272849-the-miranda-obsession" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px">http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41BmEU6kftL._SX106_.jpg" />The'>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13272849-the-miranda-obsession">The Miranda Obsession by Bryan'>http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/32587.Bryan_Burrough">Bryan Burrough

My rating: 3'>http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/261523707">3 of 5 stars

Women calls a celebrity on the phone and she seems to know a lot about them and other celebrities. Other celebrities have talked to her but none of them seemed to have met her. Interesting story about a woman that is just a voice.

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The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

2011-12-26T20:01:00.001-05:00

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60792.The_Accidental_Tourist" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px">http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170549402m/60792.jpg" />The'>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60792.The_Accidental_Tourist">The Accidental Tourist by Anne'>http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/457.Anne_Tyler">Anne Tyler

My rating: 4'>http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/251418382">4 of 5 stars

Great read. I read it in a little over a day. Macon is a travel writer that does not even enjoy travel. His life has had a little bit of an upset and he is depressed and down. Then he meet Muriel, who will change his life like Macon did not think was possible. A wonderful read.

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The Gears of Wonderland by Jason G. Anderson

2011-12-24T10:14:00.001-05:00

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12979788-gears-of-wonderland" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px">http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5113PcJVLwL._SX106_.jpg" />Gears'>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12979788-gears-of-wonderland">Gears of Wonderland by Jason'>http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4689503.Jason_G_Anderson">Jason G. Anderson

My rating: 5'>http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/250687460">5 of 5 stars

I bought this book bacause the name intrigued me. I did not do much research to find out what the book was really about...but the name drew me. Right from the beginning the book drew me in and kept me reading to the very end of the book. This book is about Wonderland after Alice has been gone a while. It is a great read, one that I am sure can be read over and over, each time you would find something different that you liked about the book.

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Longing by Karen Kingsbury

2011-12-24T10:05:00.001-05:00

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10917118-longing" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px">http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Wb6NpSy2L._SX106_.jpg" />Longinghttp://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10917118-longing">Longing> by Karen'>http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3159984.Karen_Kingsbury">Karen Kingsbury

My rating: 5'>http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/239672132">5 of 5 stars

Another great Bailey Flanigan series book! This book follow both Bailey and Cody as they live their lives serpartely but certain events have a tendency to lead to seeing one another or time when they think of each other. Bailey is dating Brandon Paul and considering moving to California to possibly do a few movies and of course be closer to Brandon. Cody does not think that Cheyenne is the right person for him and plans to tell her. I can not wait for the next book to see what happens to all of the characters in this book.

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Goals

2011-11-27T14:09:00.001-05:00

November's goals I think I did pretty good on. Menu plan, I planned meals from our stockpile and used our grocery money to add to the stockpile. Reading, I think this month I read more than 6 books, while I met my monthly goal this month, I do not think I am going to meet my yearly goal of 60 books this year. But there is always next year. Exercise, I tried this month to go to Zumba 2 times a week. But at the end of the month I failed. I had a cold and could hardly breathe and that made it hard to go to Zumba classes. I am hoping to get back in to the swing of it this week.

As for December goals, I am not setting specific goals for December. I love the month goals and will start over in January, maybe with a whole new set. But for December I am going to think things through and maybe come back in January with month and maybe a little more long term goals.

December is a really crazy month of shopping and preparation for Christmas. I am looking forward to all of that. While I am almost done Christmas shopping, I am always looking for a great deal.

I am considering some different directions for this blog and might be considering closing this blog down and starting another. Or keeping this as my family blog and going in another direction with another blog.

I will be posting different things here through the month of December. So keep coming back.

Hotel Vendome by Danielle Steel

2011-11-26T22:33:00.001-05:00

Hotel Vendome by Danielle Steel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazing book! Who knew owning a luxury hotel could be so much fun. Instead of Eloise at the Plaza, the adult version is Heloise at Hotel Vendome. Heloise's father Hugues buy a hotel and raise Heloise, as a single father while running the hotel. Heloise grows up with in the hotel. A great book that follows Heloise's life.

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Out of Oz by Gregory McGuire

2011-11-25T21:51:00.001-05:00

Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is the ending in the Wicked series! I was very excited to get this book and start reading it. This book was slow moving. The book would pick up and I would think it was going to get really good only to take a turn for the worst real quick. Had I not read all of the other books in the series and want to know the ending, I probably would not have read this whole book. The ending to me, left a lot of things out and I would have like to know something about Dorothy going back to San Francisco.

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Can You Keep a Secret by Sophie Kinsella

2011-11-25T21:45:00.001-05:00

Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Emma has many secrets that she keeps from people in her life. She get on a plane from Scotland to London, for company business. The plane is a very jumpy and she gets scared. She starts telling her seat mate all of her secrets because she is scared and does not think the plane is going to land. The next day she finds that she told all of her secrets to the owner of the company that she works for. A great book that will surprise you at times.

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They Key Trilogy by Nora Roberts

2011-11-25T21:36:00.001-05:00

Key of Light: The Key Trilogy: Book 1 by Nora Roberts
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Key Trilogy is 3 of Nora Roberts great books in 1. Key of Light, Key of Knowledge and Key of Valor. All amazing books in there own right but all 3 together make a great read. This set of books is about a mythical God taking a wife of a mortal and having 3 daughters. The daughter were half mortal, half God. There was turmoil in the God world and the 3 girls were put under a spell to sleep until 3 women could unlock then from their sleep. They had 2 guardians, that were in love. The guardians had spent thousands of years looking for 2 suitable women to unlock the spell. In the books each women needs to find the key as it exists in her life. The key to finding your key is really a chance for some self discovery along with the discovery of love and many gifts that the women had all along, but just did not open them selves up for.

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Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of his Trip to Heaven and Back by Todd Burpo

2011-11-25T21:23:00.001-05:00

Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back by Todd Burpo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What an amazing tell of going to Heaven before your time. This young boy had memories of Heaven, stories that came out over a course of years about a journey that he took while ill. Telling stories of Heaven that are not just written in Bible stories but of a lifes journey. If you did not believe in Heaven before reading this book, you will when you are done reading.

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November Goals

2011-10-31T11:23:00.001-04:00

October was a crazy busy month and I can hardly believe that it is almost over. Hopefully in November I can take more time to sit and smell the roses!

October goals were things that I thought I could follow well but it seems that October was a month that seems like it was just flying by. I did manage to make a menu and we did pretty good at sticking to it. But we did eat out a little more than we should have. Keeping up with my blogs, I did not do at all. There just was not enough time. I do have a few recipes for my recipe blog, that hopefully will be posted today or in November. I have a Gratitude blog, but just do not take the time to blog there every day. I need to blog there more often. Housework, I have managed pretty well this month. We did some major cleaning at the beginning of them month and I have been able to maintain it! Reading, I think this month I met my goal. I even read a print book that was loaned to me by someone at work.

November Goals

1. Menu plan-

If we stick with doing a menu, we do better at making meals. I just have to remember on crock pot days to get it started in the morning before I leave for work.

2. Recipe blog-

I need to put some new recipes up there. I also need to take pictures when I do cook a new recipe or even an old one.

3. Blog more-

I need to blog more here. When I sit here at the computer I need to use some of the time constructively, rather than wastefully.

4. Gratitude-

Even if I do not post of the Gratitude blog, I need to practice Gratitude in my life. Be thankful for the little things. Being grateful for even the little things helps so much.

5. Housework-

Continue to keep up with the housework. Make sure that the daily tasks get done and do not get away from me.

6. Reading-

I plan to read 6 books this month. I have a few on my list that I want to read.

7. Budget-

Be more mindful of the budget and the steps that Jim takes so that we remain with in our means. Also that we manage to save a little bit each paycheck.

8. Exercise-

Right now, this just mean getting to the Zumba classes each week. I would love to get Jim and Kyle into a walking routine in the evenings, but I am not sure that is going to happen.

9. Watch Kyle's grade-

I need to remember to go online to look at Kyle's grade every few days. This way I can keep track to make sure that he is doing all of the class room assignments.

10. Bible-

I need to find a verse of the day website and really study the bible.

11. Family time-

We do spend some family time, but I want to continue to make this a priority. Kyle is growing up so fast, that we need to learn to spend time together now.

12. Compliments-

Learn to compliments others. Instead of seeing all of their faults, need to compliment them on the good.

13. Be present-

Need to learn to quit multi tasking all the time and spend some time doing just 1 thing at a time. Be present in the moment especially when someone is talking to me and it is important.

These are my November goals.

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

2011-10-28T13:31:00.001-04:00

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My rating: 5'>http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/228438386">5 of 5 stars

Another book well done by Nicholas Sparks! This is a story of true love that span a few decades. Dawson loved Amanda from when they were teenagers to the end of his life. Never getting over the loss of her love. The end had a very surprising twist! A great read.

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Jeannie Out of the Bottle by Barbara Eden

2011-10-28T13:17:00.002-04:00

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10309013-jeannie-out-of-the-bottle" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px">http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1295919106m/10309013.jpg" />Jeannie'>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10309013-jeannie-out-of-the-bottle">Jeannie Out of the Bottle by Barbara'>http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/980460.Barbara_Eden">Barbara Eden

My rating: 5'>http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/228432534">5 of 5 stars

I love this book aobut the life of Barbara Eden! I love to read biographies. I picked Jeannie Out of the Bottle up because I remember watching I Dream of Jeannie and laughing many time growning up. I love Jeannie. Barbara Eden did a great job of telling the story of her life.

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Obtober Goals

2011-10-08T07:25:00.001-04:00

Hard to believe that October is here already! Halloween is looming close! Love fall and the cooler weather.

I don't think I did to well with my September goals. I think for me it is getting back in the school routine that takes over the month of September. Menu plan, I did really good with this. It is easier when I am working to have a menu plan, I know what to defrost and cook each night. Gratitude blog, I am bad with my gratitude blog, I need to get better at this. I did manage to do pretty good at housework this month. I love going to bed with a clean sink, so I make sure the dishes are done at night. Jim is helping with the laundry on Saturday's, which is a big plus. Reading, I don't think I quite made my goal this month. Just finding the time to sit and read was difficult. Exercise, I love Zumba classes, but need to get back in the swing of it. I have missed so many Thursday classes.

October goals:

1. Menu plan

I love having a menu plan. We don't always follow it exactly but it is a good guide to have.

2. Recipe Blog

I need to post some new recipes and remember to take pictures when I cook something new.

3. Blog more.

I need to blog more here. I have a current book that I have not read, but I have been reading her blog and I am very upset with her views.

4. Gratitude blog.

Try to post daily. I always have things that I am thankful for and need to be more mindful of them.

5. Housework.

Just keep doing what I am doing and not let housework get the best of me.

6. Reading.

Continue to read. I am not going to set a monthly amount of books this month. I also have been reading lots of blogs and sometimes that takes away from book reading.

7. Budget.

I need to be more mindful of what Jim does with the budget. Be present when he does the budget instead of doing my own thing.

8. Exercise.

I am doing pretty well with this. Just need to stick with it.

9. Bible.

I want to study a verse a week. I think I need to find a bible study Yahoo group to keep me on task.

10. Family time.

As Kyle get older and does not want to be with us all the time. I want to remember to devote a little time each week to family time. We mostly always have family dinners but we need to go beyond dinner and spend some time together.

Happy Birthday by Danielle Steel

2011-09-12T17:52:00.001-04:00

Happy Birthday by Danielle Steel

Valerie and her daughter April share a birthday. Valerie is a successful decorating guru, who has her own TV show. April owns a successful restaurant. Valerie see a physic every year on her birthday, this year she does not believe what he had to tell her. She would find love, her daughter would have a baby. April goes to her acupunturist and the acupunturist gets vibes that something is off. She tell April maybe she should have a Pregnancy test. Then the book takes off from there. A great Danielle Steel read.

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Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

2011-09-12T17:36:00.001-04:00

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

A great book about life as in a circus. This book give you the story of circuses that went from town to town on the train and the dynamics of the circus. Not really much about the animals but about the people that traveled with the circus. The performers, the workers and the management. This book me somewhere I had never been, working with the traveling circus. A great view of what went on behind the scenes when the circus was not preforming.

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License to Pawn by Rick Harrison

2011-09-05T10:32:00.001-04:00

License to Pawn: Deals, Steals, and My Life at the Gold & Silver by Rick Harrison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Love the show Pawn Star, so when my local library had this book an e-book, I decided to check it out. I really did not have high hopes for the book, love the show...but wondered what they could tell you in a book. This book more than Wowed me. Rick wrote about his life and his ups and down. Rick is really intelligent. Rick talks about his childhood and his troubled teens. How him and the Old Man started the Pawn. The old man write a chapter, Cory has a chapter and even Chumlee has a chapter. A lot of the book is about the Pawn shop, but you do get insight in to each character and what they have been through to get where they are now. There are many great stories about the Pawn Shop. The 3rd shift stories at the window sometime amuse and sometimes scary. A great read.

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September Goals

2011-09-05T10:22:00.000-04:00

August was a busy month. It seem all the summer months were pretty busy. Not really sure why that was. This summer was a pretty long summer at the school system that we are in started later than they have in many years.

Of course as always I met a few of my August goals. There was a few that I did not meet, but this happens. Menu planning, really I did not do this in August. It showed in our grocery budget also. Usually we have a little bit of surplus going into the next month, with August we did not have any left to go into September. I did post a few new recipes on my recipe blog and 1 or 2 were even my original recipes. I need to learn to take more pictures. I did blog a little bit more here and not just about books....although I do love sharing my book review. I did get an anonymous comment of one of the books that did not agree with me. I with they would have left their name and e-mail...but that is the way it goes sometimes. Gratitude, I do have gratitude in my life, but I need to do the daily gratitude. Exercise, I kept up pretty much with this. I did not go to Zumba the week of my colonoscopy or this last week. Reading, I did not meet my goal but I read 6 books this month. These are just the goals I decided to highlight. I met some of the other too.

September Goals

1. Menu plan- Have already started this for September. It help with our household inventory and with the first 2 week grocery shopping adventure.

2. Recipe blog- add more recipes but also remember to take pictures of recipes and add them to the blog.

3. Blog on this blog more. I would still like to do a weekly post. More than just book reviews.

4. Gratitude. Keep a gratitude blog.

5. Housework. With going back to work, I need to get on a weekly schedule for house work and stick to it. In October I have a few days off and will be doing my deep cleaning then.

6. Reading. I would like to read 6 books this month. This is down from my normal goal but I think this is more doable for this month.

7. Budget. I need to be more present when Jim works on our budget. I just let him to it and don't follow to much. We pay all the bill together but the sub accounts, I do not follow.

8. Enjoy Fall. I love fall. Nice cool weather. Not to cold and not to hot. I want to enjoy the fall colors and the cool weather. One great way to is to walk in the evenings.

9. Exercise. I signed up for 2 day a week exercise classes offered through my job. It is nice when they offer classes because usually they are late afternoon classes and we are not having to eat a late dinner. I want to try and add 1 more class a week or work out with my DVDs.

10. Bible Study. Study a verse a week.

11. 1/2 me time daily. I try to take time out of every busy day to enjoy time just being present with myself. Sometimes just reading. Sometimes thinking the whole day through. Sometime it is just before bed.

12. Smile more.

Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen

2011-08-29T06:54:00.001-04:00

Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tess Gerritsen tells another great story about Rizzoli and Isles. This time the story takes place in Colorado and Rizzoli is looking for Isles. Isles goes to an convention and gets lost in an Ice storm while on a skiing trip with an old friend from college. At one point the think Isles is dead and even go as far as having a memorial service back home in Boston but at last minute discover that this is not Isles body. Great book.

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Sister of the Quilt by Cindy Woodsmall

2011-08-29T06:48:00.001-04:00

Sisters of the Quilt: The Complete Trilogy by Cindy Woodsmall

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is 3 books in one. It is a great read about an Amish girl and the way of the Amish. Hannah was a young Amish girl in the first book, who was courting age. She was interested in a Mennonite, Paul. One night coming home from Paul Grandma's house Hannah was attacked by an Englisher. This starts Hannah story. Hannah had to leave the fold because family and the church did not really believe all of the details. Hannah sister Sarah, get sicks and calls Hannah. Hannah returns to the community to help Sarah. I thought this book would take a week to read, but I read it in a few days. It was one of those hard to put down books.

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Conquistadora by Esmeralda Santiago

2011-08-29T06:36:00.000-04:00

Conquistadora by Esmeralda Santiago

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Great historical fiction!

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Summer

2011-08-10T06:09:00.003-04:00

Summer vacation 2011 is almost over. While I work a modified schedule in the summer, it is still a vacation. This summer has gone quickly for that I am glad. It has been crazy. The month of June there was so much going on, I am not sure how I kept up. Few days spent at my school, summer camp for Kyle, Catholic Heart Work Camp using the kitchen at my school (I have to supervise the kitchen).

July, was a crazy month. We did not do anything for the 4th of July. Just really spent the time just the 3 of us. The rest of the month was crazy. Mostly riddled with health troubles and doctors appointments. Some of this even squeezing in to August. We did get to see some family this month. Joining them one day at a Flea Market between their house and ours.

August really has not been that bad. I was sick after my Colonoscopy, buy I expected that to happen. Back to school meeting went well and I am so looking forward to going back and seeing some of the kids. It is time to go back and get back to the normal routine.

I tried growing Peppers and tomatoes this summer. I did some small containers on our decks...but the squirrels attacked...not sure what that was all about. Came out one afternoon to water and my potted planted were tipped over and torn to shreds. Sad. Oh, well maybe next year.

We did not really do anything this summer, just have not had the money. But there are summers that are like that. Maybe next year.

One Day by David Nicholls

2011-08-09T07:48:00.000-04:00

One Day by David Nicholls

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Great book. Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley spent the night of graduation and the next day together. Their lives would lead them both in so many different directions. They were great friends, who were afraid to find out what they had together. Dexter told Emma once that if she was not married at 40 he would marry her. Many moments through out the book you think they are going confess their love to each other, but it just does not happen. Till Dexter goes through a bad divorce and Emma finds success and moves away. When they do find their love it is short lived because of a tragedy and Dexter has to try to move on with out the love of his life. This is one of those books that I think you can read over and over. Dexter and Emma's story is a classic, 2 friends trying to succeed in life while what they are looking for is right in front of them.

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A Visit From the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan

2011-08-04T18:17:00.001-04:00

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Pulitzer prize??? Really. This book jumped around so much from present to past, character to character that it was hard to follow. Each chapter seemed to be narrated by someone else. At the end of the book I understood and could put all of the chapters together but while reading the book I was so lost. I read this book because it was a suggested reading from a book site, I sure wish I had not taken the suggestion. I usually try to give the book the benefit of the doubt. While this book had some good chapters over all the book was not that great. There is a ton of time switching which is hard to follow. Just really felt disjointed like the story did not truly all go together.

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Stomach Troubles

2011-08-03T05:48:00.003-04:00

I have been having stomach troubles for about a month now. Not really sure why. When I went to my doctor he did some pressing around and asked about how stressful life is. My job is not really stressful, I love it. Jim and I are happy, we don't have money troubles but Jim's job is stressful for him and I think that has caused some stress for me. My doctor ordered an Upper GI and a colonoscopy. The Gastrinologist called and it would be about 2 weeks before I could have my tests. In that time it was very busy...Jim had his anxiety attacks...boy was that stressful.

On Monday I went and had my tests. The upper GI and the colonoscopy. You had to do a day of prep the day before. All liquid diet...that was not the worst part, even though if left me pretty hungry. There was the prep...miralax and Gatorade. The miralax seemed like a lot to take at one time. You had to poor it into the Gatorade and then drink 4 oz every 15 minutes till gone. I don't like any flavor of Gatorade, so this really was not an easy task. I was worried about putting that much miralax in my body at one time. But I managed to spend the 4 hours drinking this prep. It started to clean me out good but only after drinking a few hours worth. Then I had to take 2 doculax at bedtime. Needless to say, I was up most of the night going to the restroom. Then in the morning you can not drink anything. But you have to do 2 fleet enema 1/2 apart about 1 hour before you leave. Great fun.

I got to the hospital...we were a little early. We had to wait a little bit in reception to get admitted. Then it was up the elevator to the floor that we needed to go to. We waited just a short time in a small waiting room. Then it was off to my room, where I would get ready for surgery. The nurses were great. They tried to put the IV in. One little nurse was upset that 2 of my vein clasped and she could not get the IV in. She did not try more than 2 times as she did not want to hurt me. The second nurse did a great job at getting the IV in. Both nurses really talked to me and made me feel really comfortable. It was a great experience.

The second nurse wheeled me back to for my tests. She explained that she was my nurse for the duration of the test and that the doctor had another nurse to assist him. Once I got to the room for my tests...they talked to me a little bit more and then gave me the wonderful medicine that would keep me awake, but I would not remember the procedures at all. After that I do not remember much of anything. I woke up back in my room where Jim had been waiting on me. When I came back to myself, I had a cup in front of me. I took a drink of it and it was OJ....Jim told me I asked for it...hmm. I don't remember going back to the room. Jim says I kept asking the same things over and over once I was back in the room...so still must have been under the influence of the medicine...LOL

Once I started to come back to myself, they let me go home. Jim went out and pulled the car up and the nurse wheeled me down the elevator and out to the car. Jim kept asking me if I wanted to stop and get something to eat, but really I just wanted to go home. The nurse asked me what restaurant I was going to eat at when my procedure was all done, like you could just leave the hospital and go eat. Hmmm. I will assure you that was not the case with me. I threw the OJ up as soon as I got out of the car at home. Yuck. I came in the house laid in my bed and I was sleeping for a few hours. When I woke up Jim went and got something to eat. I ate very little. But just really did not feel good. Jim had to make a trip to Walmart to get some medicine that I will need. I threw up what I had eaten while he was gone. I tried to drink water and threw that up. Jim called the doctor and he said that don't worry to much, you can go 48 hours before you really have to worry. Just take things slow. I was throwing up stomach bile by the end of that night. Crazy I tell you.

Tuesday morning, I woke up at 4 and just could not go back to sleep. I got up and walked around my house some. That started to help me feel better. I drank some water and I could keep it down. Before Jim left for work, I ate some toast to make sure I could keep it down. I was slowly on the road to recovery. I ate a little bit through out the day and drank plenty. I made dinner BBQ Grilled chicken, buttered noodles and peas, I was able to eat some of this. Progress was slow but at least I was getting somewhere. We had to run to Walmart because they could not read the prescription when Jim dropped it off, so they called the doctor to make sure they had the right instructions.

All of this to find out that I have 2 ulcers in my stomach, both are curable. He found just a couple of hemorrhoids in my colon. So all in all it was worth finding out, but I don't think that I ever want to go through this again.

August Goals

2011-07-28T05:52:00.002-04:00

I know that July is not over yet, but we only have a few days and I don't think that the update of July's goals are going to change much if at all. I thought I would post this today instead of waiting.

July has been a crazy month. Health problems that struck in not only us here at my house, but my family in general. Crazy I tell you. My wonderful SIL was diagnosed with MS this month and we are all trying to grasp at what this means. Everything that we have read says that most MS patients live a full life, there is times that they become wheel chair bound. So we shall see what this brings. I have had some stomach issues. My doctor thinks that it is possibly stress related. While my job does not cause me much stress...like has been stressful lately it seems. Jim had an anxiety attack this month and we are trying to deal with this and figure out where we go from here. I am sure it will all work out.

July goals, I think I did pretty good with them all things considered. I did not follow a menu this month, with trying to remodel the kitchen it seems that things changed all the time. We ate out a few more times than we should have 1 week. Recipe blog, I did not really do anything with this, I am hoping to in August. I managed to post to this blog a little more. I posted some book reviews and an update. It helped to write about Jim anxiety when it happened, I really just needed to get things out, so that I could deal with them. I have learn from years of journaling that just writing things down some times helps. Or I guess typing in this case. Gratitude blog, I did not do so well on this but I am going to try harder in August. Reading, I think I almost made my goal. I think I am reading book number 8 now, not sure if I will finish it in the next couple of days, but I will see.

August goals:

1. Follow menu-not sure how this one is going to go this month. I am even going to try to be better about planning side dishes this month.

2. Recipe blog. I have some time off this month, so I am going to try real hard to work on this.

3. Blog her more-I am going to try and set up a weekly post at least.

4. Gratitude-I need to work hard on this in August. Hopefully I will see the thankfulness in every situation.

5. Housework-I hope to keep up this month and maybe even get my deep cleaning done this month.

6. Exercise-I need to Zumba at least 1 time a week. Like to make my class both days every week and then do my DVD at home once a week.

7. Reading- 8 books again this month. Reading is so relaxing.

8. Budget-still helping Jim and making sure I follow his system.

9. Enjoy the last of summer vacation

10. Bible study-read a verse a day

11. Work on things for next school year. Time is running out for this goal.

12. Reach out to friends and family that I have not talked to in a while.

13. Always think things through.

14. Nourish family relationships.

15. Cherish the moments that the 3 of us have together.

16. Take 1/2 hour of me time each day.

3 Willows by Ann Brashares

2011-07-25T16:59:00.002-04:00

3 Willows: The Sisterhood Grows by Ann Brashares

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Three girls entering high school that have been friends since elementary, but they started to head off in different directions in middle school. They have memories of stories told about the Sisterhood of the Traveling pants and would love to be able to follow in those girls foot prints...but just don't know how they are going to stay friends, when it seems that none of them are alike.

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A little adjustment.....

2011-07-25T06:38:00.002-04:00

Today Jim is going back to work. He has been off since he had the first anxiety attack last week. He has only had 2 to far. When we went to our family doctor on Friday, he said that he think that Jim's serotonin levels are low. So he put him of the generic form of Celebrex. Then ran some blood tests. He ran a thyroid test, this one I know for sure. This weekend Jim has seemed great, even though the doctor told us that the Celebrex might bring on more anxiety attacks before it started helping him. The doctor also gave him a number of a physcologist to call and make an appointment with. This physchologist seems to help people get better with these issues by trying to manage them and not stay on the medicine forever. So hopefully we are moving the right direction.

I have to admit, I am a little nervous about today, but baby steps, is the best way to be. Jim will call me if he has a problem. Hopefully things will work out, but you never know. I am of course the worrier here in our family. Kyle is to, if he really understands or know what is going on. With this we kind of have kept him in the dark....don't want him to worry to much about what Dad is going through.

This summer has gone by pretty fast. Seems like June just started and last week I received my letter in the mail about back to school meetings. We start back on August 22, the kids come back on the 24th. Little less than a month away. Crazy.

We have spent the summer slowly working on our kitchen. So far it is looking pretty good. Walls, floor, sink, bottom cabinets, counter top and a small top cabinet are all set. Kyle and I could not help Jim with the large top cabinets, so my older brother is going to have to come and help again.

Trust Me on This by Jennifer Cruise

2011-07-19T16:03:00.003-04:00

Trust Me on This by Jennifer Crusie
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Not really sure that I like this book at all. It was a great love story, but the whole plot was just really strange to me. Alec goes with his Aunt to a author's convention. Dennie is going there to interview another author about her recent divorce. In a case of mistaken identity Alec thinks that Dennie is there to help out a real estate con man try to sale property that he probably does not even own.

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Life keeps kicking me when I am down....

2011-06-06T15:25:00.001-04:00

Sentence of Marriage by Shayne Parkinson

2011-06-06T15:16:00.000-04:00

Sentence of Marriage by Shayne Parkinson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Great historical fiction! Love this story of Amy and her family! Amy was so young and naive.

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June Goals

2011-06-06T06:09:00.003-04:00

This year is just flying by. Hard to believe that summer is here!

My May goals were not hard to keep on track. I did pretty good in my estimation. I will update you on a few here. I did mostly follow the monthly menu. I think we did go out a couple of times, but not often. I was not to good about blog updates, here or on my recipe blog. Just did not seem to have the time...but summer is here now and I should have more time. I read 6 books, fairly close to my goal. Hopefully this month I will read more. Have a little bit more time with summer here. I read the Nicky Charles series about werewolves over the last few month and loved it. It was a free series that I found iBooks. Then I read Part Time People, it was a pretty good e-Book but I would classify it more as a short story rather than a book. Weight loss is slow, I think I am building muscle rather than losing weight, which is fine. I did discover that I have gone down a few pant size, so that was so worth it. De cluttering went well. Even managed the 13 year olds room last month. We started talking about it and he was excited to get it moved around, so we tackled it. I am still working on exercise. I am desperately seeking a summer Zumba class close to home.

June goals.

1. Keep working on the menu. I think I am doing pretty good with this, but I could do better. I think it will be better with summer because I am home much earlier and can get things started.

2. I am hopefully going to be working on my recipe blog this month. Although my oven is not working right, so will have to see how far I get with that one.

3. Post more on this blog. I always think of things that I can write on this blog but by the time I sit here, I have forgotten them. I am going to start carrying a notebook to write things down to blog about.

4. Read 8 books. I am well on my way to this goal. I have read 2 books and I am almost finished with a 3rd. That is one of the great things about summer break. Plenty of time for reading.

5. Keep up with the daily housework and do a little above and beyond. Not sure what that I will do some extra every day, but every other day or so.

6. Exercise. I am still looking for that summer Zumba class, but we will finding it soon, I need to work out. I can feel that I have not been working out over the last week. Exercise helps with there is a lot of stress, it makes me feel so much better.

7. Pay more attention to our budget. I tend to let Jim do all the budgeting and paying of bills. I hope to get better at being there when he works on it and understanding what he is doing. He does a great job of keeping all the bills paid and even making sure extras are taken care of. We have some major dentist bills for Kyle right now and Jim is managing to fit them in the budget, while keeping with our Dave Ramsey following on no debt. I am very proud. But want to make sure I understand, so that if anything happened I can keep up with the budget.

8. Learn to leave work at work. This is a hard one for me. Not because my job is stressful but because I love my job and want others to understand I love my job. Sometimes I think about my job more than I should...time to step back and think about enjoying life as much as I enjoy my job.

9. Enjoy the summer months. I still work in the summer but it is very part time. Sometimes there is extra time, but I am done early in the day. It is so nice to be able to enjoy so much of the day. I am trying to do a couple of fun things with Kyle this summer that does not cost a lot of money. We have a river walk near by and some other walking paths that we can enjoy.

These are June goals and I hope to accomplish them all but if I don't there is always next month!

May goals

2011-05-11T06:39:00.002-04:00

In April I decided to start posting monthly goals for myself. I was not sure if I would follow them or even if they were going to be reachable goals. But I know that I need monthly goals and it would be fun to track how I accomplish them.

I think I did pretty good with April's goals. I did follow our menu pretty well. We did eat out a few times....that we could have just fixed what was on the menu. I could have posted a few more posts on my blog, I think I will get better with this one with time. We did over spend a little bit, but it was all budgeted for. We have to did into the sinking fund for remodeling, as we have started the big kitchen remodel that we have want to do since moving in here. We have enough money that we should be able to get this project done this summer. Plus we bought some much needed summer clothing. Jim and I have both lost weight and needed summer clothes that fit. I read 3 books. Not sure of the titles right now, but next month I will keep track better and post the titles. This is an update on just a few of the goals.

May goals:

1. Keep working on the monthly menu. We are doing pretty good so far.

2. Try to post more recipes on my recipe blog. Add pictures.

4. Try to post on this blog more. Should be starting to get a little bit easier with summer here.

5. Read 8 books this month. Another that should be easier with summer. I don't work near at much in the summer.

6. Try to lose a little more weight. I am happy with the weight that I am, but could still lose just a little bit more.

7. De-clutter my house. We have slowly gotten to where we really don't have to much clutter...but would so like there to be less. The teenage boys room could use some help...LOL

8. Exercise, continue to workout 3 times a week. Add a few walks in there and maybe another workout session or 2. Zumba has been a really great workout. I enjoy my classes and also the DVDs. I need to find a summer class to continue with.

These are my goals. I will post an update on some of my goals in early June.

Life....

2011-04-17T00:49:00.003-04:00

Life...ever take a minute to consider your path. I do about once a week. I always wonder am I really on the right path. I am really being true to who I am. Is being true to who I am hurting me in some way? Usually after spend about 10 minutes thinking all these thoughts, all is usually right with the world and I decided that all of these things are silly. I am on the right path for me. I am always true to my being and who I am. No being true to myself is not hurting me.

With all these things, it seems that sometime people walk away. You have to wonder if those people look back and think about what they are missing. Do they truly wonder why it was time for them to walk away? Sometimes after a short while they come back, but sometimes they stay away never to be heard from again. I am going through this once again in my life. This time it just is not that easy to watch. I don't want to sit on the side lines and just watch the situation unfold this time, just hoping that they will come back. This time they are really close family. While I have seen this coming for a while, I chose to ignore it. But truly I don't think there was much that I could do, it was by their choice, not mine. Being family, I am almost certain that they will come back...but when. Why is this happening, is a question that I ask myself. I don't really even know what went wrong. Did I do something??? I don't think I did. Over analyzing this is just making it harder for me. I try not to think about it, but it is hurting me. I should be able to just let go, as I have done before...but this time it is just not that easy. I want so hard to let go and let God....but letting go means that I walk away (at least for a while). I need to let go and let God....but my heart does not want to let go. My heart is hurting. I really love them. My brain is telling me to walk away for a short time...but my heart keeps questioning why. But I have to step away knowing in my heart that in the future they will see that they need me or maybe I need them. So now is the time to let go. I will miss them...but I need to let this burden go for a short while and move on.

I have a pretty happy life. My husband and son are my life. They are what means the most to me. Spending time with them is such a blessing. I have a job that I love (how many people can say they love their job and really mean it). I do many leisure activities that bring me joy. I have my health. Life is really good.

Spring Break

2011-04-07T07:18:00.004-04:00

This week is spring break. I am off from work and Kyle does not have school. For Kyle it is a week to sleep in and really not have to leave the house. We joke about him being a homebody...but it is the truth. He does not like to shop. We told him Friday we are going to spend some time doing something fun as a family. At 13 he mentioned Kid Kingdom, which is just a local park. He has always loved going to Kid Kingdom, from when he was little I guess till even now. We told him he is probably a little old for the playground...LOL

Me on the other hand, take spring break as a time to get somethings done that just need to be done...LOL Monday was relax day for me. I did not do much at all which was so nice. I did make those phone calls that I have been putting off...but that was not hard work. Tuesday, Jim had a doctor's appointment, I went with him. Then we did our monthly grocery shopping. Monthly grocery shopping is a few hours trip as we go to quite a few stores and get the best deals. We take our price book along and try to find the best price. This month for the first time we stopped at an Aunt Millie's bread outlet...that was so worth the trip. Wednesday and today are spring cleaning days. Yesterday I got most of the cleaning and reorganizing done, today is all about the floors. Have to get them swept really well and then mopped. Also I plan to make home made granola bars today. Friday we are considering going to a museum of some sort. Probably something fairly close as gas prices are high right now and that makes a long trip fairly expensive. So looking forward to spending the day with Jim and Kyle. Will finish the day at Jim's favorite Italian place for Lasagna. I have never made lasagna...so going here will be a treat.

With spring break, means that the school year is almost at the end. Hard to believe that 2010-11 school year has gone by so fast. Seem like we were just starting the school year and getting set up. Now we are cleaning and getting back to the end. Another group of 8th graders will be moving on and we will get a new group of 6th graders. The next month they will slowly be visiting us, they will even get to try eating lunch with us. Great fun. I work on a modified schedule during the summer. I work less hours, which means less pay...but it is worth it. I get to spend my afternoons at home usually.

April Goals

2011-04-04T15:27:00.005-04:00

I hope to be making this a monthly post. I have spent since January thinking about really where my life is going and if I am really going in the right direction. Truly I am going in the direction that I want to go. My husband and I have come a long way in the last few years and it feel like we are on the right path.

But in life there are always goals that you like to reach. New Years resolutions always seem to come and go. But the goals that you set for your life are always waiting silently in the background for you to reach them. You may not reach all the goals that you set and sometimes an unreachable goal that seem like you will never reach catches up with you and suddenly you are surprised. Sometimes you set goals for yourself that seem to change along the way. Things change and while that was a goal in a certain part of your life, it just did not make sense to continue to per sue it. Goals really are just guidelines drawn in the sand to be reached, met or not reached (but trying to).

All this to say that I am going to be posting monthly goals. Some of them will be met with in the month. Some will take time, some may never really be met. From month to month some will stay the same, even if they were met one month...the next month is a new month. Even the goals that are not met may change...there is a reason they were not met even metamorphosized to something different. Sometime I will share why a goal was not met and sometimes, I will just let it go.

So my goals for April will be:

1. To follow the monthly menu every day that we have set for our family. This is a hard one as sometimes I want to cook something else.
2. Try to post to this blog about once a week. This is also a hard one as sometimes I go months with out posting.
3. Work on getting pictures of my recipes so that I can add them to my cooking blog and to my iPad. Should be fairly simple.
4. Work hard with my hubby to follow our budget and not overspend for the month. We have not overspent in a while, so this should be easy too. But this week we bought a few much needed expensive items. But it did feel good to be able to pay cash for them.
5. Read at least 8 books. 2 a week, I should be able to accomplish this. I have not been reading as much as normal lately.
6. Continue to work out. Maybe lose 2-5 pounds this month.
7. Be a good wife and mother.

I think that is it for now. I may add to this later, but we shall see.

The Ground hog was wrong and other crazy ramblings....

2011-04-04T06:57:00.003-04:00

Hard to believe that it is already April and spring break! Not really sure where the school year has gone this year. But a busy one.

I sure think that Ground hog was wrong about an early spring this year. Because it is still cool out and I think last week we even saw a few flurries of snow. All the way at the end of March, we saw snow, crazy I tell you. I am starting to think that spring will never get here. I want to enjoy the flower, even the April showers will be very welcome, not anymore snow though.

I promised in February to start posting Monthly goals...I guess that got away from me. But I am really going to work on this. I need to post on this blog more often. Need to take the time to post here. I sit at this computer or hand my iPad handy pretty often. I just have to type out the blog. So I will get to doing a monthly goal post.

In March I started taking a twice weekly Zumba class, I love it. I have not lost much weight but I can see my waist line and my abs being more toned. I really did not want to lose weight as much as tone. I have not meant the goal that I set for myself as far as weight last year, but I am happy with where I am weight wise. I would like to be 120-130 pounds, but I hold steady around 150...so not to bad. My Mom would be in panic mode if she were still alive...but I like to think she is looking down and finally understands that weight is not that important in life. I also bought Zumba DVD and have started working out about once a week at home (sometimes twice). I found doing Zumba can be stress relieving. If you put your whole mind set in to exercising, then it seems to me the tension feels better after exercising.

Life is very active right now and that is a really good thing. Tomorrow is Jim's yearly Neurologist appointment and probably will have to have his blood drawn. He hates this but I think this is a good thing because he gets a yearly physical without really knowing it...LOL

Kyle is growing so fast. The teen years are starting to hit us and it looks to be quite a bumpy ride, but I am sure that at the end it will be so worth it. I do see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it is years away. I want Kyle to enjoy his teen years and to grow up to be happy and healthy. Hopefully even with teen angst the years do not fly by and I won't feel like I missed something when he is leaving for college.

Me, I still love my job. I could not have a better job ever. Who knew that I could ever be happy with a job. I am happy with who I am and where I am going. But I have been that way for most of my life. I try to be real and not hide behind a mask.

Well, this is life in a nutshell. I am going to try and post goals later today!

Crazy snow days and other stuff

2011-02-03T09:32:00.003-05:00

It has been a long while since I have blogged here...just have not had much to type I guess.

Usually in January I take time to update last years resolutions and what direction I took with them. But really I have had a hard time coming up with new resolutions, or really more like goals for my whole year. So I think that I am going to start taking this on a month by month plan and try to post my goals at the beginning of the month and then update again after the month is over and set goals for the next month. Month by month goals. Of course there are long term goals too and I will let you have a glance into those too. But they are not going to have a time limit or if they do I am not telling how long my long term goals are for. I think this is a better way to take stock of your life and to keep myself accountable. Rather then making "resolutions" and trying to keep up with them year to year.

These last 2 days we have been out of school due to snow days. I really hate snow days, as they usually have to made up on another date that we might have had off school or at the end of the school year days get added on. I myself would rather not have the day off and then we would not have to make them up. Plus snow days mean that there really is winter weather outside my door and I just really am not into snow at this time of the year. It is always pretty for Christmas, but by February I am usually hoping that it has gone away and that we are starting to lean towards more spring like weather. The ground hog did not see his shadow yesterday, which says that we are supposed to have an early spring...right now in my snow filled world I can not even imagine it.

I will post again later today with my goals.

Kyle is 13 today!

2010-12-30T07:09:00.003-05:00

Kyle turns 13 today! Time has gone by so fast or at least if feels that way.

I remember him being handed to me in the hospital for the first time. We have a picture of Kyle and the doctor that delivered him. It was such an exciting time. We never knew the changes that he would bring to our lives.

It was fun to watch him grow from infant to toddler. Preschooler to school age. Now for tween to teen. Not sure that I am ready for the teen years, but here the come ready or not.

I have loved seeing all the changes from the tiny little baby to the teenager taller than me. Amazing how they start out so tiny and then before you know it they are taller than you!

Happy Birthday to Kyle!

2010 Good year

2010-12-29T09:40:00.002-05:00

As 2010 winds down I begin to think about the year as a whole and see how the year went.

In January Jim really started looking for a job...or at least harder than he had been looking. He enjoyed the time off, but it was time to get back to work. In March, he got a call back on a job that we applied for from Craigs list...which he did not think would go anywhere. People do not find jobs off of Craigs list...LOL Believe it or not the job was for a real company and he interviewed and waited. After waiting a few days, Jim called them back. He got the job. The money was about what he was receiving in unemployment, but they have insurance. Insurance might save us some money as, we had spent 10 months paying into Cobra and it was pretty expensive. Jim has worked this job for almost 10 months now. While it is possibly not the best job in the world, it is a job. While he is not make the money that he was making when he left Kay, he is making money and has not had a break in income of some sort coming in. We did not have to go through the indecisiveness of unemployment benefits being extended. So over all Jim having a job has been a great thing. While he does not love his job (like I do), I do think he likes his job and hopefully will last many years.

Kyle, who will be 13 tomorrow (the years have flown by so fast). He had a great 2010 or at least I think. He finished the school year pretty good. Enjoy a great Summit Adventure at 5 star summer camp. We are already thinking about this coming years camp! He is a great kid.

For me 2010, I lost 20 pounds (hope to lose for in 2011). I reconnected with some family. I did some soul searching and figured out that overall I am very happy with my life and the place that I am in. I love my husband and the life that we share. I love my son and have had fun watching him grow (although time has seemed to go very quickly). I have a job that while at 19 it might now have been my dream job, I think it fits me pretty well. I have been working there 5 years now and I love it. I have a pretty stable and happy life, that is really all that I ever wanted for myself. Life is not perfect but I am pretty sure that this is where I should be and what I should be doing right now.

Bring on 2011!!!!

Christmas is getting close

2010-12-21T09:18:00.004-05:00

The stocking are hung. Well close to it anyways...LOL The shopping is finished! Baking is finished. Presents are wrapped. We are almost ready for the fun unwrapping.

Today is house cleaning day. Closets are being gone through. De cluttering a little before the New Year begins. It is so needed. My house will smell so clean for Christmas. I do this a few times a year and it is time. This time it should only take a day. But I have to get started today or it might spill over into my resting day tomorrow and I can not have that.

My niece is coming to stay for a day next week. She is going to a friend close by for a few days and then we will pick her up. Then we will take her home when we go for our Christmas with them. It will be nice to have a girl in the house even for a day!

Next week I will be working on my New Years post. I don't think there will be any surprises in what I want to accomplish next year, but you never know.

Must get cleaning today! Have a great day!

Christmas Break

2010-12-17T15:14:00.003-05:00

Christmas break has arrived. This week had been a pretty long week. Not really sure why...maybe it was the anticipation on 2 weeks off. It will be nice to have 2 week off...the only bad part is the no pay. But a vacation is a vacation.

I am going to spend some of my Christmas break getting my house in order. Of course there are those normal weekly errands that will be done earlier in the day now. Then the is the rest! It will be so nice, to just rest. Sleep in some and gradually ease into the day!

We are going to spend Christmas at home, which is what we do every year. Some time during vacation, I am sure we will see my brother's. My Dad and step-Mom will come over for Christmas Eve and we will enjoy their company then.

Kyle is looking forward to the time away from his studies during Christmas break. I think he really needs the break as he is starting to not do homework like the should. I am not sure what is going on with that, but he better figure it out and soon. Or he is going to soon be grounded till he is 20...LOL Kyle is going to spend some time with friends, as a matter of fact we have one friend coming over tonight!

Jim of course has to work this 2 week. He has 2 days off for Christmas and then 1 for New Years. We will get to spend some time together, which will be very wonderful.

Life has been very hectic lately. Not really sure why. Jim was working early hours 7:00 to 4:00 but for some reason they decided that he needed to work 8:30 t0 5:00. That extra hour in the evening is very strange. We used to be sitting down to dinner at 5, now Jim is just getting off work, so that has taken some adjustment! Hopefully soon we will get used to that and be on the right track!

Merry Christmas to all. I am sure that I will write again, but you never know!

Cold...snowy Monday and only a 2 hour delay

2010-12-13T07:06:00.002-05:00

Today it is quite snowy outside and we are expecting more snow...but we only have a 2 hour school delay! So off to school we will go and enjoy our day! We have to make snow days up on other days that we might have off, so if we can avoid that it is all good.

We have been busy Christmas shopping lately. We finished this weekend! So glad to be finished. We have to get some cookie containers and wrapping paper yet and then we will be done!

This past weekend Jim bought me a pretty big Christmas present. I have been wanting one since they came out and was so excited to be going to the Apple store to buy one. He bought me an iPad. I love it so far.

Well time to head to work. I am going to try and post more.

School stories

2010-10-29T07:23:00.004-04:00

As you know by the title of my blog, I am a lunch lady in a local school system. I love my job and would not trade my job for anything. I manage the kitchen and have 7 employees under me. My job is very rewarding and it one of those jobs that just suit me. It is not for everybody, but it is the job for me. I love my job.

Here are a few stories, some are stories that I cherish, some are stories that make you wonder about kids today or even people in general.

Every morning I serve breakfast by myself. I am the first person there, I turn everything on and get ready to serve breakfast. Breakfast only takes 1 person to serve as I only serve about 50-75 students. On the first day of school I had a student tell me he was glad that I was back. I was his favorite in the whole school. He likes to come to school for breakfast and lunch because we make the best food. In his neighborhood our school serve food in the park during the summer. So I told him that he could have ate lunch all summer in the park, he said but you make it so much better. That made me feel so good.

As I serve breakfast I try to learn the kids names, sometimes it is hard but as they come up in my computer I try to remember them (why I think this works, when if I meet you on the street, I will not remember your name is an hour, I am not sure). When you remember the kids names they connect with you and I love that. I called one student by the wrong name one morning but then remembered that was not her name and I corrected myself. Now she always makes a point to talk to me because I remembered her name. I love to connect with the students and try to make their day in the morning by engaging with them. When you are the first adult they see in the morning at school it is good to be positive.

At lunch time we have 3 serving lines...as our number at that time are in the 400s of students (our school has a total of 675 students). It is harder to learn names this way and usually I do not run a register at lunch, so that makes it even harder. But I do watch as the students go through my serving lines. I have caught many things. One of the biggest is stealing, it is amazing the things that middle school students think that they can get away with. They try many different ways. I had a child that was spending lots of money on his lunch account buying ala carte items...so Mom called and had a $0.50 limit put on his account. So every day he would go through the line and forget to get a milk or juice, so he would have to go back. He would go back to the milk cooler and get a drink that would not normally come with a lunch...thinking that so one would see him walk out with the more expensive drink. He thought he was being sneaky...till I caught him. I have children that will stuff food items that are not wrapped in their pocket because they want more than 1 serving of the items...yuck. Or they will hide items under their salad, making for a very tall looking salad, it is quite funny the things students think that they can get away with when they think that you are not watching. Or sometime even when you are watching. I had a student just the other day stick a cookie in her jacket. So I watched her go through the line and at the end of the line I asked her what she had in her pocket. She handed me the cookie. This is just a sampling of things that I have seen there are plenty more and they can by funny. Usually you catch them once and they will not do it again, but sometimes you find the one student that will keep trying.

October is almost over...wow

2010-10-29T07:00:00.003-04:00

We have now been in school for 9 week or a little more. Seems that the time has flown by. It has been an interesting school year so far. My dish washer passed out in my dish room in September. One of the ladies that works for me went in to the dish room and found her lying on the floor. I went and got the nurse, she had to be taken out by ambulance. Her blood pressure was up and down. Really she was not to responsive. After it happened I talked to her daughter, they found that she had a leaky heart valve. So far she has not been back to work and now they are saying that she will not be back till after the holidays. She has been in my thoughts and prayers all this time and I hope that she is starting to feel better. We have missed her.

Kyle brought home his first report card of the year yesterday. He had 2 of his core subjects that he did not do so well in. Math and Language Arts he seems to be struggling in. We think he is struggling in Math because the put him in the accelerated class this year and they are going over things the other kids learned last year and Kyle did not. We are going to talk to this teacher and see if there is anything that we can do to help him along. Language Arts has always been a struggle and we just have to figure it out. I am not sure what we are going to do. I think we are going to meet with the teacher and try to figure out what she thinks the reason for the grade are. Then see what we need to do to help him. The rest of his grade were really good...I think once we get intense about making sure he has the skills needed, he will do fine in all his classes.

This year has gone by so fast, it is hard to believe that it is October already. I think some how I missed a few months in there. Sometimes I think we spend to much time thinking about the future and wishing time away that we forget to live for today. To enjoy the moments while they are right here. Worrying about the future and what it holds is good...but only if you learn to live in the moment and live today like it was your last. Because you never know when it will be your last.

This month my Mom has been gone 6 years. Hard to believe that it has been that long. I have missed her daily for the past 6 years. In the first 4 years there are many days that I would have loved to be able to pick up the phone and call her. Sometimes you just have those days where the only way it could possibly get better is my hearing your Mom voice. In many ways my Mom kept me grounded. Over the last 6 years I have had to find my own way. This year it was easier on the anniversary of her passing. I missed her but I did not dwell on that fact. I tried to remember all the good and live in those moments. I will always miss her but I know she is looking down and smiling.

Catch up and busyness

2010-10-10T20:01:00.004-04:00

Life has been crazy the last few months!

Just after Jim went back to work last March, we discovered Dave Ramsey and we have been diligently trying to follow his plan. We are still on baby step #2 our debt snowball...but we are trying. We have done a few things that Dave did not recommend, like take a trip in September...he would recommend that we snowball our debt and have the 3-6 month emergency fund. But we are trying. We paid all cash for our trip and had saved.

We don't have much debt...but we are planning to have it all paid shortly after Christmas. All we have right now, is our car loan. We would like to pay down the overage of what it is worth and then sell the car and get a beater that Jim can drive back and forth to work for a while. Then we will save for something better. As the car that we are paying on has a lot of problems...even the dealer ship is surprised that this car is having these problems. Our other debt is really do ourselves. As since we have moved in here we have slowly been fixing up this house. Which for this one it will probably be by some time next year that we are done. We we sealed the roof this weekend. We need to finish the front bathroom. We do the whole kitchen from top to bottom. Then the back bathroom needs to be gutted and redone. It has been a slow process but very rewarding. So that is the plan for now.

We did take a trip for mine and my brother's birthday. We went to Cedar Point for Halloweekends. We had a great time. This is the first time that we have went that the kids were really excited that they did not have to hang with us parents all day! It was sad at first...but once we all got used to it all was good. We had perfect weather and spent most of Friday evening and all day Saturday in the park!

Some thing else new that we are doing is couponing and stockpiling. I have always made a monthly menu but now we are making the menu based on what we have in the house and then using the month budgeted grocery money to stock pile. It has taken some getting used to and I think it is going to take a little more time. But I really do like have my cupboards full, being able to go to the cupboard and just pull something out is wonderful. We used to do this but we have gotten away from it. Couponing is new for us and we are really trying to work on it diligently and get the best deal for our money. We started out by doing a price book to find out where the best price is. Then we watch the sales and if we have coupons. By having the price book you know where you can get the cheapest price. Also when something is on sale somewhere you know if it is the best price or not. Getting the price book together took some work but it has been well worth it. The couponing we are still tweaking to get the best system for us. All of this is a work and progress and so for the progress is good.

We have been so busy with school, work, after school activities lately. That is really no excuse for not blogging but I try. I am going to try and start post here at least once a week. Productive computer use is what I will call it!

Summer is almost over!!! Where did it go?

2010-07-22T06:20:00.005-04:00

Summer is almost over and it is time to get back to school. Hard to believe that we only have 3 weeks till school starts. Sad but we really did not do much this summer. We spent 4th of July with my younger brother Tom and family in Kendallville. We went back to Kendallville the next weekend to see Kierstynn in a parade.

This past week we started having some problems with the car. We bought an extended warranty when we bought the car. So we thought we were covered. It was supposed to be a bumper to bumper warranty. Which to be they cover just about anything but the routine maintenance, tires...well you get the picture. So we took it over to the dealer, they hooked it up to the diagnostic machine. The did not come up with anything related to the problem that we are having. They think that it could be the timing belt...but they are not sure. So of course the warranty is not going to pay to have the car taken apart to find out. Not sure if they will pay for the taking apart if that is actually the problem or not. Then they told us that we have a problem with the sway bar...which they just replaced in November...Jim did not remember that, so he is going to talk to them today about that. Car repairs are always expensive.

Jim's hours have changed at work. He was working 8-5, now he is working 6-3...which is very nice. We get some time together in the afternoon and evening. He is here to help with chores and cooking. I enjoy cooking with Jim! He like the hours a little better. He says that it seems that he get more done.

Other than that not much going on here.

4th of July weekend already!

2010-07-03T11:11:00.003-04:00

I have not written here in so long. It just seems that time keeps getting away from me.

The school year ended like 6 weeks ago and I have been busy ever since.

The week before school ended my Aunt died. She was my Mom's sister. We really had not talked to her since Mom had died. Her husband had died and we never knew. She never called any of us to let us know and I guess we don't really read the paper. One of my Aunt's step children had found my phone number on a piece of paper and really did not know who's number it was. Terry called and asked for Chris. Then after he found out who I was he told me my Aunt had passed. My Aunt's step-children took great care of her after her husband passed. I went to the viewing and the funeral. I am sorry that I did not reach out after Mom died and try to become closer with her...but really it was a hard time.

Then the ending of the school year. That is always a tough week. There are a lot of things to do, plus a group of students that we have served for the last 3 years. This year 2 of my girls were leaving us at the end of the school year. 1 had been with us for about 1 1/2 years. She just wanted to move on I guess. I don't think this was a job that she was really cut out for...time for her to find something new. The other one was a new girl and she wanted to work at a school that was closer to her home. There was a job opening and she jumped at the chance. I hope she likes the new school. So I will start the school year training 2 new girls...but that should be fun.

Then we start summer...great fun. In the summer I work, but I work less hours. We serve lunch in the local parks. It is a lot of fun to go out to the parks and see all the kids from very small kids to 18 year olds. I usually work inside, but sometimes I get to go to the parks and see the kids.

Kyle got honor roll for the last grading period. Which was very exciting because there were a few times that he grades got pretty low...but he was pretty good at bringing them back up. He went to came the 3rd week of summer. He had a great time. Then there is an extension of the camp program at one of our local parks once a week. So he goes to that. He gets to spend a little bit of time with some of his friends and mentors. He is enjoying his summer so far. He hates to do chores because thinks summer is not for working...it is pretty funny.

Jim has been working his new job for a few months he likes it so far. He has been pretty busy the last few weeks and that had been nice!

My Grandpa in NC died a few weeks ago. It is very sad. I really did not know him well. I had only been to NC once and it was when I was 3 or 4. But it is still very sad when your family dies. We were not able to go to the funeral...but we were there in our hearts. My Grandpa was a lifer in the military, he served time in the Korean war. Grandpa John, rest in peace!

Well, I will try to update more often!

Happy 4th of July!

Wow, where has time gone!

2010-05-02T04:19:00.004-04:00

Hard to believe the last time I wrote anything serious in this blog was February! I really don't know why because I love to blog and see the information that I put in this blog. Some people put their lives in pictures on their blog, I try to put my life in words. I have always loved to write weather it be journaling or poetry. I have often thought about writing a book, but just do not know where to start. It is the starting point that is the hardest. Maybe one day!

In news. Jim is working! Yay. He has been working for close to 2 months now. It is a small company that their main office is in Florida but they have a warehouse here. Jim is really only 1 of 2 guys that work here. The warehouse manager and Jim. Jim is really enjoying the job. Really that is all the big news.

The school year is about to end. Kyle has made honor roll all the previous quarters of this year. We are hoping that he make it the last one too, but he is not doing well right now. I think he starts to get towards the end of the year and he gives up a little. Hopefully we can get him back on the right track and not shut down before the end. He needs to learn to follow everything through till the end. As for me...End of school clean up is starting to commence. Then there will be the Summer program. I get to work inside this year. I am sure that I will go out to the parks some.

I am going to try to start writing more in this blog. Like a least a little update every week, because when months go by I forget everything that I ever want to blog...LOL Hopefully I will share some pictures too!

Keep smiling! :-)

Updating

2010-04-08T09:07:00.000-04:00

I am working on updating and changing the layout here! Slow but sure!

Mom

2010-02-14T15:09:00.002-05:00

This month Mom would have had her 56th birthday. She died in her 50th year. Just after I turned 30. I still miss her each and every day.

But this was her first birthday I can say that it did not terribly upset me and I could move through the day with out being terribly depressed. Why? This year I have decided to quit blaming myself for her death. To remember her in the good times and not think about the bad. Yes at the end there were many bad time. She was so sick and it was hard to see her slowly waste away. In the end she had trouble getting out of bed. But not only did I blame myself for not doing enough. I blamed her for her own death. There are so many if onlys. If only she had quit smoking, so that she could get on the lung transplant list. If only she never would have smoked. If only one of the many time that she came home from the hospital she would have not went right back to smoking. So many of these and I have spent so many years worrying about all of them. It was an endless cycle and this year I decided to end the cycle.

I needed to break this cycle. I needed to remember her yes, but I need to remember all the good. I need to remember the person that she was. I need to remember that I love her even still. Yes, I do miss her but I can't let it take over my life.

I spent time being sad because I look around and see what she is missing. The kids growing up, she will not see them as adults. But she enjoyed what time she had with them.

So this year I celebrated her life instead of remembering her death! This year I intend to change my relationship with her death and make it not of her death but of her memory!

Anniversary

2010-02-06T18:49:00.006-05:00

Just last Thursday we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. 15 years has gone by so fast! Feels just like yesterday that the wedding march started to play, my Dad and I walked up the aisle where Jim was waiting! But we got married when I was 20 and now I am 35...where has the time gone. We have had many ups and downs over the years. But through is all we have stuck together and made our marriage work. Through everything we have always put each other first. Whenever I had really needed Jim he has been there for me and I hope that I have done the same for him.

It has been a great 15 years and I look forward to many, many more!

January has gone quick

2010-01-17T09:30:00.002-05:00

Hard to believe that January is almost half over! Seems like it just started.

January has been a pretty busy month for us. Although I am not truly sure what we have done...it does seem busy.

At work it has been especially busy as I truly think that last week had 2 Wednesdays..LOL Jim thinks I am crazy of course! The girls that work for me, just laugh. In the 2 weeks we have been back to school since winter break, I have reviewed all 7 of my girls. Ordered for February. Put up Valentines decorations.

At home. We completely cleaned the house from top to bottom last weekend. Usually that it about a once a month task, then the rest of the month is pickup and surface type cleaning to maintain.

Other than that I guess we are pretty boring. January is a hard month because it is cold out side and there is not much to do unless you enjoy the cold. I love the look of winter, just not the frigid cold temperatures that go with it. Or the driving on the icy snowy roads....I dislike that.

January 2010

2010-01-03T23:39:00.003-05:00

2009 has ended and 2010 has started. Hard to believe that we are a decade into the 2000s. Time has gone fast at times, slow at other times. When it comes to watching Kyle grow into the pre-teen it seems it has gone by fast. Knowing that Jim and i will soon be married for 15 years...it seems that time has flown by. But then you think about time when you think about I have only had my job about 4 years, it seems that it is so much longer. So I guess depending on the situation and how you look at things time is relative.

2009 was a year of great change for us. I think both Jim and I have really grown in the last year and we both have learned to look at the big picture instead of little snap shots. Our relationship has come a long way, for a while I felt me were starting to grow apart and needed to figure out how to come together with our love once more. But some how we have figured that out and it seems our marriage is on the right track...we had sat stagnate for so long. The love was still there but for some reason we were not connecting on levels that we should be. I think on my end, I never wanted to stress him more than his job stressed him, so I never put my worries on him. I just did not share of myself and that was very wrong of me. The last year we have figured this out, we still have a long way to go but slowly we are getting there.

With each New Year comes the New Years resolutions. I was reading my blog post from this time last year and it made me smile. I did not lose any of the weight that I wanted to in 2009 and actually probably gained some weight. I think I lost some in the spring, but managed to gain it back in the fall. I did manage to look inside myself this year and look at who I am. I found out that I am really happy with who I am and where my life is going. I am who I want to be and I am very proud of the 19 year old girl that got married to early. 15 years later I am still married and very settled in the life that I have with my hubby and son. Of course, there is always room for improvement and there are things in my life that need improving, but if you work on those slowly and over time. Life really is what you make of it. I am sure there are more from last year, but these are just a few things that I remember well.

As far as 2010 resolutions go. I have a few that I will share here.

1. Lose weight. I know this seems to be something every year. But the idea is to be healthy. Right now, I weigh about 165 pounds, I should be at about 125. I need to be healthy and carrying about the extra weight really is not making me feel healthy at all. My Mom, when she was alive would be so upset with me for weighing 165 pounds. Although if she was alive, I don't think that I would weigh this much, she used to keep me accountable, she had such drive to stay under a certain weight.

2. Keep working on myself. You always have to be aware of yourself. You have to be true to yourself and to who you truly feel like you are. You can not let others take advantage of you. I think sometimes that I am to outspoken and sometimes that does turn people away. I need to learn to work on that.

3. I need to work on relationships. Mine and Jim's relationship, we need to keep being aware of each other. To keep communicating and sharing with each other. Keep spending time together that is just us. Work hard on the relationship we have to maintain it and to grow together. Family relationships also need to be worked on and cultivated. I am so bad at this. I don't usually look beyond my little family. We don't do much with Dad and Kitty. They just don't seem to have time for us. Maybe if we take the time and spend with them then they will see that we really do want them to be a part of our lives. I think need to work on the relationships with extended family too. I think you hurt other when you don't seem to have time for them and lately, I am sure they feel that way. I don't ignore them on purpose but sometimes I wonder how you manage to fit all of this into your life with out spreading yourself to thin. Maybe just phone calls and e-mail once in a while will help. Have to get better at both.

4. Work on relationship with God. We had started studying the New Testament a few years ago, I am not sure what happened to that. Maybe I can find a Bible study group and continue to study the Bible.

I think this is about all for 2010. I am sure that as the year progresses there are always things that can be added to this list and improved on.

Hopefully this year will be a year of great promise. Jim will find a job that he can be very happy with. He has enjoyed being home, but I think that he is starting to feel the need to get back into the work force. Unemployment is not going to last forever...but it has lasted long enough for him to feel like he has enjoyed great vacation times with us. He so enjoyed being off with us for the first time ever over Christmas break.

Happy 2010!

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T14:37:00.002-05:00

Christmas Eve is here again! If you have children that believe Santa comes tonight. Our son no longer believe that Santa delivers the gifts but he does believe in the spirit of Santa.

We usually stay home for Christmas, we believe that Kyle should be at home to play with his gifts. In past years I have made a whole traditional Christmas or a few years we have made something untraditional that did not take a ton of time to prepare. This year we decided to make the traditional meal with all the trimmings. Mainly because we had a whole turkey in our freezer and this seem like a good time to cook it. My Dad and step-Mom are coming here for Christmas dinner. It should be a fun time!

Merry Christmas!

Mom and her interesting family

2009-11-08T18:27:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I found out some interesting news. I had an Uncle that had passed away about 6 months ago and we did not even hear about it. This was my Mom's sister's husband. When Mom died, her and her sister had not spoken in at least 9 years. So really it was not surprising that they did not look hard for my brothers and I to let us know that our Uncle had passed.

I find this very sad that we did not keep in contact with my Aunt and Uncle or my other Uncle since Mom died. But that is just not the way this side of the family is. They could all go years with out speaking and it not be a big deal. Growing up we really did not know much about Mom's family. There was Aunt Pam and Uncle Walt, Uncle David and Mary Jo, who were there occasionally. Uncle David lived with us for a while a few different times. Aunt Pam and Uncle Walt, when we were little they were always there. Mom and Dad spent many weekends playing cards or games with them. But when my parents divorced that changed. Aunt Pam and Uncle Walt, just were not there...weather it just be circumstance or what, I don't really know. Then as time went on that really changed Mom and Pam had a falling out and things were just never the same. I really don't know that much about that. Then there was a time right before Jim and I got married, many problems there that I don't think they were ever worked out. It just was a sad family thing. Both my Mom and my Aunt could hold a grudge for a long time and just not let it bother them. It would have ate at me forever.

Aunt Pam never came to Mom's funeral and after that we really never kept in contact with her. I think we all missed out...but it was really hard to understand. Also how do you make up for lost time. How do you fill in all those gaps?

Yesterday after finding out that my Uncle had possibly passed away. I was hard pressed to figure out some answers. There were a few ways I was going to get those answers. Call my Aunt directly, call my cousin, facebook my cousins son and have my cousin contact me. I decided to call my Aunt. I was a little apprehensive about this and really did not know what I was going to say. I just knew that I had to try to get the information that I needed. So I called. Actually the call went better than I expected. At first I think that she thought I wanted something, but once she figured out I just wanted to talk she opened right up.

So all of this to say you should not lose ties with your family because you might miss something important and then be sad.

November is here!

2009-11-01T07:01:00.003-05:00

Hard to believe that November is here already. It seems like school has just started and went back to get my kitchen all set up! Now we have gone through all of September and October. Every year goes by so fast. It is going to be with a blink of an eye that Kyle is grown and heading off to college.

Working at a school, I find that children are very interesting and even in middle school they do some of the darnedest things. There is one boy at my school that does not like to follow the portion sizes in the lunch line and every day he get upset with us that we have to throw something away. But we have to follow portions sizes as it is state law. Also kids do not do well with a lot of change, If there is something different, they want to know why. Especially when a cashier is missing...some kids go to the same cashier every day. This year is a very different year for what they are eating. It is hard to choose what is going to be the most popular item on the menu! We serve 3 entrees every day, plus a 3 in sub sandwich and PB&J. Sometimes what went last time will not be the same things that goes this time. My son goes to my school this year and he always seem to eat the item that I think that no one will eat. And usually he is in the minority, meaning he eats something that not a lot of kids eat. So it is hard to pick what is going to be popular for my own child choices. But my son was brought up at home to eat what we eat or at least try it. Kyle does pretty good with this and there are actually not to many things that he will not eat.

As fall lead in to winter. The leaves are turning such pretty colors. I love to see all the fall colors. It is starting to get cooler here and soon we will not have days where we can open our door to let in the fresh air. Probably soon rather than later. I will miss the fall days. They are saying that this winter will be a mild winter, which will be nice for a change of pace. I hate all the snow and ice. I know we choose to live here in Indiana...but it is hard to just up and move from family and a support system.

Christmas is just 55 days away. We are starting to get prepared. This year we have bought a few gifts here and there. It is a little easier to fit into the budget if you buy little things here and there rather than one big Christmas shopping trip. We of course will be shopping on Black Friday trying to get some good deals. I think we are going to be making a trip to the Outlet Malls in Michigan City in December too! We have not been in a few years and think that it would be a fun trip. The best outlets are Gurnee Mills Mall of course, but we probably will not be doing that trip this year.

Unlike most we do not have to many places that we have to be on Christmas. Really all we have is my family. Jim's parents are both gone now. We will probably do my family early this year. On Christmas day we will stay home and enjoy spending time with each other. Last year we make Turkey Pot pie with turkey that we had the weekend before. Not really sure what we are going to eat this year as it is a little bit early to be deciding on a menu.

Last week of October

2009-10-25T08:16:00.003-04:00

October has actually shaped up to be a pretty good month! Started out bad, but all in all it has been a pretty good month!

We are doing pretty good. Jim is still not working, but we accept that pretty well. He has been looking for something, but really there is just not anything out there. But something will come along before unemployment runs out...that I am sure of. He has to apply for an extension next month, but I am sure that will be fine.

Kyle has had some problem with grades. He had all As and Bs at progress report time. But he went down hill in Language Arts as time went on. We learned that we need to watch his grades online and make sure that he is turning in all of his assignments. They list the assignments online the day that they are assigned. When they need to be turned in, with in a few days you find out if they turned them in.

Jim bought me an early Christmas present. I got a new Laptop. We were looking at getting me one for Christmas. Best Buy had a good price on a HP. We looked at it and it had all the things that I was looking for in a computer. We looked at it and decided to buy it. We had thought about waiting till Black Friday because we had heard that there were going to be some great deals then. But we saw thing one and we don't think that we were going to get a better deal. HP offed a free Window 7 update which we will get in a few weeks...but I can wait for that. I have played with it for a few days now and I love it. It runs so much better than my older Dell. The Dell never ran quite right, not really sure why. Personally I would never buy another Dell laptop.

Now we are looking forward to Black Friday. The shopping with family is so much fun!

October

2009-10-11T04:41:00.003-04:00

October so far has been a blah month. I think I just let everything get to me at once and I just did not know how to take it. I think it will get better from here.

First off, I turned 35 at the end of September and 35 is a hard year for me. Then the anniversary of my Mom's Death. It has been 5 years and I have missed her so much over those years. I sometimes do not think it will ever get easier...maybe 20 years down the road when I can no longer remember the sound of her voice. Then my Dad's birthday...which it is not his fault but I just really was not in the mood to call him and say Happy Birthday...just not a great week. Everything seems to happen so close together in our lives.

Kyle is having problems with nose bleeds. 2 weeks ago he went to the nurse because he had been bleeding for 20 minuets. He bleed for 35 minuets. I called our doctor and made an appointment. We took him to the doctor and he thinks that he might be bleeding further back in the nose than where nose bleed usually happen. So Jim is taking him to an ENT on the 27th of October. Hopefully we will get some much needed answers then.

Jim is still among the unemployed but he is enjoying the time off. He has done many projects here at home. Going through some of the boxes that we have stored and purging. It is a nice feeling. Ebay has become his friend.

Missing Mom today

2009-10-04T20:24:00.002-04:00

Today is the anniversary of my Mom's death. 5 years Mom has been gone. There are so many days that I want to pick up the phone and call here. We have gone through so much in the last year and it would be so nice to talk to her as we were changing or I was going through some health problems. I miss her so much. We had come so far at the end! I know that she is looking down on all of us and smiling.

Happy Birthday to Me

2009-09-26T07:11:00.004-04:00

Happy Birthday to me. I turned 35 today. Every year on my birthday I take stock of my life. I look at where I have been and the direction that life is going.

This year we made some changes. Smaller house, Jim lost his job, vehicle changes. I am sure there are more...but these are major one. These changes can change the course of your life. It has affected us but I think that it has been really good for us. The smaller house has made it smaller payments, which gives us less stress with trying to make the house payment. Jim's job loss of course is very stressful and can become a big stresser if you let it. But truly we have taken it in stride and we are riding the wave to see what direction we should go from here. Hopefully something will come along that we can totally be happy in the job that he is doing. Vehicle change is not much of a big deal. Jim traded my van for a truck for him. We needed something that he can get the materials for the rooms that we are working on in this house.

Financially we struggled this year. But we did what we had to and bit the bullet. Of course financial problem always cause some problems. But I think we weathered that pretty well. We are doing pretty good with our yearly budget and we are right on track. Not an easy feat, that is for sure...but things seem to be going well.

Jim and my relationship seems stronger than it has been in years. I think for many years after he started having seizures I did not want to stress him out to much. If took me years to understand that his meds work if he takes them right and I don't have to be on seizure guard all the time. But I am getting there and trying not to worry to much! It has been years since he had a seizure, so really what am I worrying about. Jim and I seem a lot closer. We talk more than we have in a while. We have always done things together but sometimes it seemed we were more apart than together.

My job, I love. I could not be happier doing the job that I do. I love to cook and I touch children's lives everyday by just providing them with breakfast and lunch! It is a very satisfying job. I always wanted to be a school teacher, so being in a school touches my happy place.

I remember doing the look back at your life on your birthday as a teenager (I have done this for year...literally). Reading my journal entries are very funny now. I always had a dream for being someone else, living someone elses life. Very funny indeed. Now I would not want to be someone All the things I said in my teenage year, just do not make to much sense. It is laughable.

As I sit here and think back to all the years, I think about all the dreams that I have ever had. I wanted many kids and a simple life. Well I have 1 kid and a very simple life. But all is good. At 18 I thought I knew the direction that my life was going in. Boy was I ever wrong. I had plans at 18...that meeting my hubby changed. The changes have all been worth it!

35 is one of those numbers that make you scared but really what is there to be scared of. It is just a number. You are as young or old as you feel. Each day is an adventure and you should seize the moment! Each moment is precious, so make the most of them. Learn to love as you want to be loved and your love will be returned. Don't worry about the things you can not control as you don't have much control over them any ways. Live each day as your last as tomorrow may never come. These are things that I have learned in my 35 years. I don't follow all of these thing but I try and that is all that counts.

Happy birthday to me!

Just an update

2009-09-14T19:46:00.003-04:00

September is 1/2 over. Hard to believe that the month is almost gone! Soon I will be turning 35 years young. 30 was a turning point...life changed a little bit at 30. 35 makes me a littel nervous but I don't think as bad as 30 or maybe even 40. The year in between the 0s and 5s, they never seem to bother me but then you get to a 0 or a 5, it seems to be upsetting. I guess those are milestones, seems like you are climbing the mountains of life and you do not want to get to the top, but when you do you think this is not so bad.

Kyle started middle school last month. So far things are going well for him. He is getting involved. He has been playing tennis the last few weeks. Funny because most of the boys are playing football. He is going to be doing Pep band one morning a week in October. Also in October hopefully he will be accepted in to the Five Star program. Five Star is a character building after school program. So Kyle is keeping us pretty busy with pick ups and drop off but it is all worth it.

Being back to working full time in my kitchen is so nice. I liked working at the high school over the summer, but I so enjoy my kitchen better. All of my girls came back this school year, which is so nice. So many kids were happy to see me at the beginning of the school year. It is neat to go back each year to see the kids you missed all summer and to meet the new 6th graders. The kids love it when you learn their names.

Jim is still not working, but he is enjoying the time off. Soon he will be working on our front bath room. As both bathroom needed a complete remodel when we moved in here. It has been slow going, but we are getting there. We have the tub for the master bath, but we have to do the front bath first. We are still deciding of the tub/shower for that. We are really considering going with a shower just not sure if that is exactly what we want or not. Then next summer will be a complete kitchen overhaul. We have a lot of ideas about the perfect kitchen, but we have to live in the space limits that we have and make it workable. We will see what we come up with in the end.

As with any relationship Jim and I have had our ups and downs. But the love and trust have always been there. Lately we seem to be connecting on a level that we have not in a while. It is so nice. I think a lot of it had to do with stress. Work on his part and I really worry about his health. It has taken me many years, but I think I have come to terms with the Epilepsy and Factor V Leighton. Every time we have a seizure scare it makes me nervous. Jim has been seizure free on Topamax for about 4 years, so that helps for making me rest a little easier.

Well, I think I should end for today!

Oh where oh where did my summer go

2009-08-07T23:48:00.002-04:00

Wow, I have not update this blog since June! Seems so long ago, but yet not to long. This summer has not really been fast, but it has not been slow either!

June was a busy month. Trying to figure out what we were going to do with our summer and when. I had to work Catholic Heart Work Camp at my school. That was a great experience. There are so many kids that come from all over the country to work in our community! They really give back. This year they had a great crew to work in the kitchen. The head of the kitchen got a little overwhelmed at one point, but I think they got that worked out and she was able to understand that you have to take some time away sometimes. All of the work camp staff was wonderful. I missed them after they were gone. After work camp, we picked up my nephew Logan and he stayed for a week. Kyle loved having him here and I hope that Logan had a great time with Kyle.

Then there was July. We went July 4th weekend up to my younger brothers. Of course as the summer goes it was not warm enough to go swimming! We had a great weekend. Dad and (step)Mom were there. As well as see Amy and Jeff. It was a nice relaxing weekend. It was nice to see the family after months of not seeing them. That weekend Jim made arrangements with my brother's and Jeff to go to a concert in a few weeks. The concert was a few weeks after the 4th. We went back up to my brothers for that. It was nice because all the boys went to the concert and I was able to have some time with my SIL Phoebe to chat and really enjoy some time with her...it was so nice.

August so far has not been that busy. I think we have 2 things going yet this month.

Jim is still out of work and collecting unemployment. He enjoyed a nice summer with Kyle. It was good for both of them to be home together. Jim took on quite a bit of the housekeeping and the taxi responsibilities, which was very nice. He even has taken on the laundry, which is very nice. We are hopeful that something with come along and he will find a job quickly this fall, but we will wait and see what happens. I am sure that the chips will fall into place when the time is right.

I worked the summer programs. This year I was inside. I did go out to a few parks as a sub once in a while but not every day. I got a lot less hours than I would through the school year, but that is the way that the summer works. I did get more hours than I expected to get at the beginning of the summer, so that is a good thing. I did some catering and other things to each some extra hours. Now it is time to get back into the swing of things as school is going to start a week from this coming Wednesday. This coming Monday is our back to school meeting, I am looking forward to the meeting and seeing my girls again! I have already been back to my school twice. Once to clean out the store room and then second time to fill the vending machines. I will go a few times over the next week and start getting things settled back in.

Kyle will be going to middle school this year. I think he is a little nervous about it. Since we moved he will be starting at a completely different school and non of his friends with me with him. He will know some boys from Scouts, so we are hoping that his helps. It was a decision that we had to make and we discussed it at length with Kyle. He is going to be going to the school that I am at. He has already given me ground rules to follow...it is so cute. I am sure that we will be fine, but he is a little nervous about me being there too! I think this situation has its good and bad points.

Other than that not to much is really going on. Just the normal day to day stuff. We are the average American family trying to survive from day to day. We have both missed parents that have passed away this summer...this summer more than any other it seems. Thankful for the parents (my Dad and step-Mom and Jim step-Mom) that are still with us. I miss my Mom so much, I would love to be able to just pick up the phone one last time and just hear her voice. But I know that would never be enough once would lead me into wanting more than once. I know that she is in a much better place...but even after 5 years it is still so hard. Jim and I both have thought about his Dad so many times this summer. Just little memories that would come to us from time to time. Jim's Mom will be gone 15 years in a few weeks. Even though I did not know her well, I often miss the time that we did not get to share. There are so many questions that I have thought up over the years, that in that in the short time we had I did not get to ask! But the short time was well worth it and she touched my life in so many ways.

Well, this blog has turned into a longer blog than I had intended. I need to learn to write here more. I will hopefully be back soon!

Book Dads Summer giveawaya

2009-06-08T17:00:00.001-04:00

Book Dad is having a great giveaway the whole month of June. Head over and sign up.

2009-05-26T20:27:00.002-04:00

I am bad at this blogging thing lately it seems. Maybe I will blog more this summer!

Today was the last day of school for the students. The 8th grade students that I have watched all three years I have been at the middle school had their last day today. It is sad. I have one special student that I became close to, I will miss her very much! But I know that she is moving on and she is going to have a very bright future! I will still miss her!

I still have to work at my school over the next 2 days. I have a teacher breakfast to serve tomorrow. Then on Thursday I will go for a meeting. I will work the summer program for a few weeks. Then I will be back in my kitchen for Catholic Heart Work camp. Then the rest of the summer, I will work the summer program. So I am keeping pretty busy!

Kyle will be going to Robotics camp next week. He will enjoy that. Then the end of the summer will be Band Camp. They have to go to Band Camp to be able to be in Band in the 6th grade. He is not going to Scout camp this year.

Jim has been laid off from work for an indefinate amount of time. He is looking for work and we hope that he finds something soon. The economy is just so bad right now.

Well this is all of the exciting news from here! Have a great summer, I am sure I will be back soon.

Long overdue update!!!!

2009-04-07T07:53:00.003-04:00

Wow it has been a while since I sat here to write a blog post. A lot has happened in that time!

Jim's job has changed. I think a lot of it has to do with the economy and things just are not going to well anywhere. The hardest part is when you have to have your income cut. But the good part is that he still has a job to go to!

I am still a lunch lady at a local middle school! I love my job and hope that it never changes. I would miss the kids. Growing up I always wanted to be a teacher, but never had the drive to continue going to school after high school. Now I do 2 of the things I really enjoy cook and touch the lives of children.

Kyle, he is a typical 11 year old. We graduated from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts in February. Boy Scouts is a little different from Cub Scouts. The Boy Scout troop we joined is boy run. There are leaders, but they let the boys pick the activities. Other than that he does not have to much going on. Different school activities and I feel like a taxi cab driver most weeks, but at least he is keeping active. Next year for him will be middle school and unfortunately for him, he is going to be going to the school that I am at.

As a family, we have moved. Which was a hard thing. We really needed to downsize. With the job situation and the economy right now, it was time to make a change. It was a very hard decision for Jim and I to make but it will be worth it in the long run, I think. More time to spend with Kyle. Hopefully less worry about how we are going to get everything paid. Family is much more important than chasing the all mighty dollar and that is what we make as our focus.

I am going to try and be better about updating this blog more often! I have been really bad about sharing!

Cold Winter

2009-01-21T04:42:00.004-05:00

January is more than 1/2 over and it sure has been cold. Friday when we got up and was headed out the door to the clinic it was -5 but they were saying with wind chill it was -55. Last Thursday and Friday we did not have school because it was so cold out.

Friday was my surgery. I had to be there at 6:30 in the morning! It was early. My surgery was at 7:30. I had to be one of the first surgeries in the morning because of a latex allergy. They say that once they use latex the OR is contaminated, till it can get a through cleaning. I have the NovaSure surgery. He did a small D and C to make sure there was nothing that is going to cause a problem later. After all that I have gone through the last few months, this was a blessing. Hopefully this will be the end of the problem. One of the good things for this surgery is no more cycles. The bad things is that your hormones can still wage war if they want to...:-) No more kids for us...but we knew that a few years ago...this just makes it final. Kyle is 11 now and there would be no way I would want to start with the baby years again anyways.

Jim and Kyle have both been sick. There was no fever which is really strange. So really I am not sure what is going on with that. Kyle was sick Thursday, better on Friday and then sick again Saturday, so that was kind of strange. Jim has been sick the last three days, but I think he is feeling better today.

2009 is shaping up to be busy as always! Seems that things never slow down. Hopefully soon!

Keep smiling. Take time to smell the roses and to thank God.

2009 is here...

2009-01-02T07:58:00.003-05:00

Hard to believe but we have left 2008 behind and have welcomed 2009. 2008 was such a busy year for us...just seemed that we never got time to even slow down. We did not take a vacation together at all in 2008, which is very surprising for us. But we lacked both the funds and the time. Jim managed to go 3 different camps with Kyle. Cub Scout Day camp, Cub Scout Resident camp and then 5th grade camp in October. We all enjoyed 5th grade camp, we had the greatest time. In 2008 about the time we would start to relax and feel like we were getting somewhere, something would happen to throw us off course. There were many events that we enjoyed but there were many times that we wondered just why did this happen.

2009 is starting to look very busy still. On Monday will be starting back to school and getting back in the swing of things for both, Kyle and I. Then in a few weeks will be my surgery. The good thing about that is I will only be done for a day it seems. Then we have various Scouting activities. Throw a birthday party for Kyle in there somewhere and you have to start wondering if I have to throw by super Mom cape in there somewhere...LOL February brings our 14 wedding anniversary. We are also considering moving in the next few months. There have been some break ins in our neighborhood lately and we don't want to be victims. 2009 sure does not look slower that 2008 that is for sure. Hopefully this year we will take some time to stop and smell the roses.

Resolutions...that is very popular New Year's thing to do. I think I do have a few. But have to say they are not very excited and mostly they are just reflections inward:

1. Follow our budget and stick to it. We need to save more this year than in previous years. So maybe we could enjoy the nice vacation that we missed in 2008.

2. Lose a little weight. I could stand to lose about 30 pounds. I always start with good intentions, but they get side tracked. Jim tried Atkins and it really worked for him, but then he had health problems that our doctor told us could be related to Atkins.

3. Find inner peace and be happy with who I am and what I have become. I think this is an on going thing. It all starts with self-confidence and generally being happy with who you are. Not trying to fit a mode that someone else thinks you should fit. Being who you are with out hiding behind a mask. I think in this step is honesty with yourself and how you feel about where you are in life. I have achieve a lot of this in the last few years, but can always use help. I find that sometimes I am over self confident and that tend to scare people away. I tend to share my views in life way to much and not to look at others opinions and how they feel about things.

4. I want to try and be more understand with Kyle. Still be guiding but try to let him find his own path. He is 11 now and he is starting to have to make a few decisions of his own. So just letting go and giving the power to him, instead of holding the power in my hand. Just guide him and hope that he makes the right decision. Always there to back it up if it does not work out. Of course there are still rules...but guide him to make the decisions with in those rules.

5. Be the best partner to Jim that I can be. To stand beside him. To carry him when he needs carried, to let him carry me when I need carrying. To make decision together instead of making decisions for both of us and telling him about it later or letting him make the decision for both of us. When making a decision be final about it and not wishy washy because I am not sure that I made the right decision. Know that sometimes even though we don't agree that there is always compromise...have to give a little to get a little. Love and friendship these are very important in any relationship. Love unconditionally, conditional love fosters unwanted things in relationship. You have to nurture love and make plenty of time for love. Friendship means listening and making time for Jim. Sometimes Friendship can get lost in the everyday. Most important is communication. Any relationship needs plenty of communication. We have found the best time to talk is at the end of the day. We don't make decisions then but we discuss things for later and we can talk about them easier later on.

OK, so maybe I got carried away with resolutions, but they are things that I need to think about all your long. I am sure that I will read back over this blog many times and it will be a great reminder of all of these things. It will help me to be mindful and aware of myself and others.

Well I have rambled enough for now. Time to get moving and have the first coffee of the day!

Surgery

2008-12-30T17:37:00.001-05:00

Hello all. I went to see the Gyno last Friday and talked to him about the NovaSure surgery. After finding out what my insurance would cover yesterday I made an appointment for the surgery of January 16. After talking to the doctor and weigh all of the other options, this is really the best thing for me. The Gyno said that he has done a lot of these surgeries and in about 400, 1 has had to have other things done. Then I talked to my boss yesterday and she said that she has had the surgery, she had no side effect and was up that night. Back to normal by the next day.

Not looking forward to surgery but looking forward to the change that it will hopefully bring.

Prayer for a teacher's family...please

2008-12-26T20:16:00.002-05:00

Hello all. I got a call today from the calling tree for my school. One of the teacher was in a car accident on Christmas Eve and even though she was taken to the hospital she did not make it. I am so sad by this news. Sad that this could happen close to Christmas.

Christmas is over

2008-12-26T07:42:00.002-05:00

Christmas has officially come and gone. We had a great time together this year. We opened our presents on Chrismas Eve. I just don' t think tha Kyle could have waited any longer. Ever since we wrapped the presents and put them under the tree he has been asking to open them. 10 and still as excited as ever about Christmas.

We all did good this year. Jim got exactly what he wanted. I got what I wanted too, a new digital camera.. Kyle got the Wii that he has been hoping for, not to many games through as those are quite expensive, so we told him tha he has to earn those.

We still have present under our tree for family that we have not seen yet. But will be seeing by the end of January (is that bad). We are hoping to see my brothers before then, but we will just have to wait and see.

2008 is on the way out. Less than a week left to go. I have a few resolutions that I will share soon. Still need to tweak them a little.

Christmas Break is here

2008-12-23T08:39:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was the first day of Christmas break. I am so looking forward to being off for the 10 days. It will be nice to have some time for myself for a change.

Friday I went to the eye doctor. As I broke my glasses yet again. Even though Jim was able to glue the frames...I think it is about time to get new ones. The doctor said that my eyes have not changed much but a little bit. That is the first time that there has not been much of a change. So I went and chose my new frames and wait for someone to come and help me. One lady told me she would be with me soon, but it took forever. Finally I asked her if there was anyone else that could help me. Of course not, but the person she was with told her to go a head and take me. So then we sat down and started talking about lenses. I told her that I wanted glass. So then she says that she does not think the frames that I picked will support glass, so she asks someone else. They said yes. After asking 1 thousand time that I was sure that I wanted glass and did I know how thick glass would be, she finally gave me a final price. Seemed very upset that I wanted glass. Then she told me that it would be 2 week before my glasses were in. I have been going there for years and except for the last time, I have always had glass. It has never taken 2 weeks. It used to be over night. So now I wait...they are all paid for just waiting for them to come in.

Yesterday I had to go to the doctor, I have been having my women thing for about 5 weeks now. Very bad if you ask me. It goes from very heavy to nothing, but just does not go away. Not really sure what is up with that. I used to only have one a year. The doctor says that my hormones are so messed up. So on Friday I go see the gyno about maybe having a procedure called NovaSure. So will see how that goes.

The rest of the week is not to busy, tonight we are having our Turkey dinner. For Christmas we will have ham.

Kyle is so looking forward to Christmas. He has been asking us everyday if he can open his presents yet. I guess waiting till Christmas Eve is very hard. But I am sure that he will be able to wait.

This is about all that we have been up to.

Thankgiving and shopping

2008-11-30T08:16:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving has come and gone for another year. We left for my brothers' on Wednesday evening. Packed up the car and we were on our way. We were looking forward to a nice weekend of family fun. We had our car loaded to the gills and we could not have fit one more thing. Of course we had the Turkey and some of the fixings, so we thought we might have more room on the way home.

We got to my younger brother's house. My Dad and step-Mom were already there, with my step-Brother's daughter Caitlyn, she is the cutest little niece. We unloaded our car and spent the evening relaxing. It was so nice. Just to be there and to visit with the family. My younger brother had to work Wednesday night, but my SIL, nephews and niece were there. We started to prepare some of the food and get ready for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving Day was fun. We got the paper and read all of the ads, so that we would be ready for Black Friday sales. We enjoyed a great meal and togetherness. My younger brother has a friend that came from New York for a job recruitment and he was there for Thanksgiving. He is a great guy and all the kids call him Uncle. It was nice to include him in our family gathering. He told us what a great time he had.

Friday, Jim, my younger brother, SIL and I got up pretty early after going to bed quite late. Our first stop was Walmart. We got there before the 5 am sales started. It was funny to see all the people gathered around the sales items, just waiting to be able to grab them. Even the center aisle where they had all the jeans. The only thing we bought there was jeans that trip. Then it was off on the drive to Fort Wayne. Of course we had to stop at Starbucks and get the morning joe, so that we could shop till be dropped. Gordmans, Target, Meijer, Best Buy, Kohls, Seas, JC Penny...these are a few of the many stops on our list. Of course we did not buy something every where we stopped, but there was something to look at that one of us had seen in the ads. I think we even went a few places that were not on our original list. We went to the mall and went of a few shops in the mall. We shopped for 14 hours and had a great time. We got most of our Christmas shopping. We have a few things left to pick up, but not much. It was so much fun. We really enjoyed this time together, this will become our tradition for many years to come, I think.

We come home on Saturday. A day to rest before going back to work. Today, we are going to put up our Christmas decorations and wrap presents. Really just relax and enjoy a little family time!

Thanksgiving is almost here again!

2008-11-24T15:51:00.003-05:00

Here I am again, posting after long bout of absence. Every since school started it seems I just don't have the time to sit here. The other day, someone asked me if I got their e-mail and I said I have not sat at my computer in a few days. Just really have not had any time. Hopefully soon things will slow down for me, but I just feel like I am repeating that over and over.

October and November have been very busy months. Kyle started basketball right after school and needs to be picked up for that 2 days a week. Lego league which Jim and I are the coaches. Then the elementary season of Wrestling started. The Elementary season was only 2 weeks and only 1 competition, but our school system has a wrestling club which elementary student can join, so now Kyle is doing that Monday and Wednesday night. Add in there Scouts and we are just so busy that we hardly have time to eat...LOL

Jim and I have been working slowly on our Christmas shopping too. We have Kyle's big present. Then we have a few other presents for other in our family. It is easier shopping a little at a time, then all at once.

Thanksgiving we will see my brothers, we are looking forward to that! Then we will out shopping with the crazies ;-) on Friday! We do this with my younger brother and his wife, we have a great time.

Maybe this weekend I will post about our shopping trip! Happy Thanksgiving!!

October is over...Wow...

2008-10-30T16:41:00.000-04:00

October has been filled with so much busyness.

My finger is better. I don't think the nail will be growing back...but at least I did not lose the finger.

After camp it seems like things have been never ending. Kyle is very busy with basketball, Lego League, Scouts and Wrestling starts this next week. He has said that he is going to do everything he can in the 5th grade and he is keeping true to that statement that is for sure.

Then Jim work has been busy getting ready for a big open house. So Jim is putting in many extra hours getting setting things up. Even putting in time of the weekends. Next weekend is the open house and I hope it will be a great success for them. Jim is looking forward to it!

Me, I have been busy playing taxi and doing all the things that need to be done. I have not had much time to just sit and relax. When I do have time it is minuets and I have spent that time catching up on some reading. Weekend have been some what relaxing, but still seems like there is so much to be done.

Work is busy as always. They promoted my head cashier to a elementary school site leader, so they are interviewing for her position right now. Hopefully they will fill the position soon. I have to work a weekend in November, we have a group coming in to use the school and they want to use the kitchen. They can not use the kitchen unless a certified person is there.

November is pretty busy. With all the same stuff going on. But hopefully a few days of down time over the holiday.

If you need me you can always e-mail me.

Crazy September

2008-10-05T21:47:00.000-04:00

Life has been really crazy lately and it does not seem to be slowing down any time soon. September it seemed was and endless month of mishaps and busyness. I locked my work keys in the office in the beginning of the month. My boss could not find their key to unlock the office. We spent quite a bit of the morning trying to get in to the office. Then I caught my nail in the cooler door and tore the nail off and the finger it still sore, maybe I smashed it in the door even. It was not painful like I had smashed my finger though.

I turned 34. 34 is not so bad...just another year. My girls at work did really good for me and made my day special. Jim and Kyle made me feel pretty special too. They took me to dinner 2 nights in a row. A movie and an Itunes card. My Dad and step-Mom came for dinner a few days later and brought me a Magic Bullet (it is a blender chopper thing). I have not used that yet as I have not been home much. We went to my brother's this weekend and they got me a Tinkerbell Themos and jammies.

The day after my birthday was a Scout camp out. The first of this year. We had a great time.

Then it was time to get ready for 5th grade camp, which Jim and I both were chaperones for. It was the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of October. It was fun and kind of relaxing as busy as life has been lately. I enjoyed being away from work and meeting other parents. The kids had a great time and they were kept pretty busy.

We came home Friday and left for my brothers' Saturday morning. We wanted to go to the Apple festival in their town and then to the Haunted Castles that is put on my some Scouts in their area. Plus spend some time with the family. We had a great time although it seemed to short.

Tonight we are going to head to bed and relax soon, so that we can get back to normal this week. Although this week is pretty busy already. October does not look as busy as September, but it is still pretty full. Jim and I volunteered to be the main leaders for Lego League this year...so we have that. But if some parents had not stepped up they would not have Lego league this year and we did not want the kids to miss out....so we made sure that it would happen.

We are already into November on our calender and it is starting to fill up fast...so if you need anything from me, you better make sure that you let me know soon...LOL

It has been to long....

2008-09-08T06:44:00.004-04:00

I have not sat here to much lately. Not enough hours in the day to do all the things that I need to get done. Even the weekends seem full lately. I have been making time to spend with Kyle and Jim.

Kyle's toe. After taking about 4 days to read the X-ray, they called and said that it was slightly fractured. There is not much the can do for a toe. They told us to keep taping it. Also he should not participate in Gym till September 8th. He hated the no gym part, but it was for the best. The toe does not bother him now, unless he hits it on something.

Work is good. I now have a full crew. I am enjoying that. I don't think we had a full crew at any point last year. Of course one of the girls that is left over from last year is not really happy with the situation. But she has the same amount of hours as everyone else, so I am not really sure of the problem. Other than things really have not worked out the way she thinks that they should. I have moved the jobs around and made them a little different and I am not sure that she really likes that. It is really nice. Everyone seems to work together and we get things done, sometimes faster than I anticipate.

Jim's job is changing again. He seems excited about the change. I am a little apprehensive, as what he is doing now is something that he said he never wanted to do. So I hate to think in a few weeks that he will not be happy. But we shall see.

School for Kyle is great. He is doing well, so that is a good thing. He has the same teacher that he had last year. I like her. They are gearing up to take ISTEP tests in a few weeks. They will have to take them 3 times this year as they transition the test to be taken in the spring. I am not really looking forward to that.

This weekend we really did not do to much. We have to get license plates, so we went to the license bureau and their computers were down...ugh. So will have to go back sometime this week when I can fit it into my schedule. Grocery shopping of course was on the list. Sunday we spent the whole day at home just the 3 of us. It was so nice.

Time for me to go, have to finish getting ready. Have a great week.

Kyle's Toe

2008-08-26T21:06:00.002-04:00

Yesterday Kyle was out in the yard playing with the Bowser (the dog). They have this thing where Kyle kick a soccer ball and Bowser brings it back with his nose. The last time that Kyle kicked the ball, he limped back up to the door and said that he hurt his toe. We moved the toe all around and it did hurt him some. I thought he jammed it pretty good. Before bed it was a little bruised...but not really do bad. This morning he complained that it hurt pretty bad. We tried to get him to put on shoes and go to school but it hurt him so bad that he could not wear shoes. So we let him stay home and we called the doctor. Jim took him to the doctor. They x-rayed his foot. The Doctor said that he has Turf Toe or a sprain toe. The Doctor said that it can actually be a pretty serious thing and could get a foot ball player down for a couple of months. But Kyle will only be done a week...the doctor does not think that it is to bad. Today he had to keep ice on his foot. They taped his big toe and his next toe together, so that the big toe can not move. He has to take Advil 2 times a day. No Gym for a week.

He will be going back to school tomorrow. He will wear his Crocs for a few days while his foot heals.

Circle of Life

2008-08-20T20:24:00.003-04:00

I always tease and say that if it weren't for bad luck I would have no luck at all...but sometimes, I start to think that is true.

Yesterday, Jim's step-Mom called and told us that Jim's Uncle passed away on Saturday and that the funeral was today. The good thing is that the funeral was not till late afternoon. Because although they would have let me have the day off, I had quite a bit unfinished from today that needed to be taken care of.

So Jim and I both went to work. We both got off early to go to the funeral.

The sad part is that he was only 63. His daughter is pregnant with her second child that he had just found our about.

Jim's Dad died a year ago. It is unbelievable that his brother that was 10 years younger would die the following year. This was quite sudden his wife and children are quite shaken.

You just never know when it will be your time.

End of Summer and begining of the school year

2008-08-18T21:08:00.002-04:00

It has been a while since I posted here. Time has just flown.

The last week of summer vacation was so busy for us. Kyle and Jim came home on Sunday. They were happy to be home and I was so glad to see them. Bowser was happy to see them too! Then the rest of the week was so busy. Kyle rested on Monday. I had to work in the parks all week. I took Kyle back to school shopping on Wednesday, he really needed pants. Those probably could have waited as he has not even worn them yet. I had my yearly check up at the doctor that week. I had a back to school meeting. Then I went back to my school for a few hours on Friday!

That weekend we had a yard sale. We had hoped to make more money than we did, but every little bit helps. What we did not sale we took to the local thrift box. Saturday night we went to a wrestling tournament that Kyle wanted to go to. Sunday we rested and got ready for the week ahead.

On Monday I headed back to work full time. There was so much stuff that needed to get set up and taken care of. Of course my first 2 days back Jim was sick at home. We think it was just a summer cold that had finally caught up with him. Wednesday the kids came back to school. It was so nice to see all the kids and to get to know the 6th graders.

Kyle's first day back was hard. Usually in 5th grade they change classrooms, but Kyle has his homeroom teacher for everything. I love the teacher so it all works out, but I think he was a little disappointed not to leave his classroom. He is in a 4th and 5th grade mixed class. All the 4th and 5th grade classes are like this. It has worked for our school system for many years.

Then this weekend we had my Dad and step-Mom over for dinner on Saturday. It was so nice to see them and to be able to spend some time with them. I made chicken on the rotisserie, my step-Mom love the rotisserie.

Then today is back to work. Kyle and I both have pictures this week. One evening is open house at Kyle school.

Well, this is life in a nutshell. I have not been able to keep us with e-mails and blogs lately. So if you sent me something and I have not responded I am getting there real slow. Also the comments on my blog are moderated, so I have to approve them after you comment...sometimes it takes me a few days.

Have a good week! Maybe I will make it back this weekend to blog.

They will come home...tomorrow

2008-08-02T13:04:00.003-04:00

It is Saturday. Tomorrow my family will be home from Scout Camp. I have missed them terribly. I have not found any advantages of being all by myself. Ok, maybe I get to control the TV and it isn't up so loud that I can't hear myself think. But really other than that being by myself has been very lonely. The first day was nice it gave me time to reflect and to think. As the week has slowly wound down, I miss having someone to talk to beside the dog. I did visit my Grandma one day and we had a great visit and I did not feel pressured to run back home because Jim and Kyle were waiting. My wonderful Sister in Law has checked on me every evening to make sure that I was ok. The last night I broke down and called Jim. I just needed to hear his voice. We have never gone this long with out talking to each other. Did not really get to say much to him as the reception was not great...but just to hear his voice was music to my ears. I talked to Kyle too, which I was so happy to hear him to. I told Jim I did not know if I wanted to talk to Kyle, because I did not want to make him miss home. Jim said that was not an issue...but I guess he has one of the best parts of home with him...Dad.

I have cleaned the house and mowed the lawn. I am going to bake an Pineapple upside down cake in the morning. I will be leaving for camp in the afternoon. They have a program for parents and even though Jim is there I really want to go and see them. The we will pick up Papa Murphy's on the way home.

Today is just resting and relaxing. Getting ready for tomorrow. I might bake the cake this evening. Not really sure.

They Left....

2008-07-30T21:24:00.002-04:00

Today was the day. My hubby and son went off to Scout Camp. The next few days will be very quiet. I will miss them terribly. But I think today was the worst day. The first day is usually the worst because you see them off and it feels like forever before you will see them again. Tomorrow morning when I wake up it will be one day closer to Sunday when I will be going up to camp. They do a camp fire and some skits for the parents on the last day.

I know that they will have fun and except for at night, they will forget about missing me. I have a few plans for the next few days, so I won't get to lonely. Today was hard because I did not have much going on and I am not used to being all by myself. Night time will be hard, because I will not sleep like I normally do. I am a heavy sleeper when Jim is here...but by myself, I hear every noise. I will read when I go to bed sometimes that helps.

I look forward to seeing them on Sunday. Kyle has already put his request in for pizza for dinner. We will pick up Papa Murphy's (the best take and bake pizza around) on the way home. Maybe I will pick up a welcome home dessert on one of my trips to Walmart in the next few days too.

I lost the month of July

2008-07-21T19:23:00.005-04:00

Wow where has July gone. The last time I posted was on the 4th. It seems like the month has just flown by.

We got some bad news the 4th of July weekend and we have been working on getting things taken care of ever since. This is something personal that I am not going to write about here. We are praying for the best resolution and that everything works out.

I have been to see my Grandma a few times this month. She is making great progress since being home. She is so happy to be home and back to her normal routine. They told her that she can walk the neighborhood some, which made her so happy. I am hoping to be able to visit her again this week.

The next 3 weeks are very busy. This weekend we will be getting ready for Cub Scout Camp. Kyle is very excited about that. School is about to start in a few weeks, so after Cub Scout Camp it will be time to get ready to go back to school.

Hope your summer is going well.

Happy 4th of July

2008-07-04T08:53:00.003-04:00

Happy 4th of July!

Not really much new to report since the last blog. Just have been hanging out.

Jim and Kyle had physicals last Friday. Kyle was upset that he has to have 2 shots. You would think those were the worst things he has had happen to him in years...LOL. They did a blood panel on Jim. His cholesterol was a little high, the doctor put him on medicine for that and of course his normal stuff (or at least normal for us). I am going to try for my physical while they are away at camp in a few weeks.

I have been off work a few days. It has been nice. I have deep cleaned some of the house. Did some much needed yard work. Slept in a few day. Took some time to read and relax. Spent some time with Kyle, he has enjoyed that. I don't have many years left that he may want to spend time with me, so I enjoy it while I can.

We are not really doing much today, probably a run to Walmart. Then we are seeing a fireworks show that one of Jim's buddies is putting on. Should be fun.

Well, I need to get started for the day!

Missing...

2008-06-27T15:44:00.004-04:00

The last few week have been so busy. I don't know if I am coming or going sometimes.

My Grandma went in to the hospital on Father's Day. We got a call that morning. She had a tear in her aorta. At the time that we got the call we did not know what they were going to do. If they were going to do surgery or if they were going to just use medicine to try to get it to heal. So off Jim and I went to the hospital to see how she was fairing. She was doing really well and was her ornery self...LOL The doctor came in and talked to her while we were there. They were going to forgo surgery and see if they could not treat this with blood pressure medicine. So it would mean a few days in ICU and then to a normal floor about a week in the hospital and then she could go home. The time in ICU would be hard because you could only visit her certain times of the day...you could come in and out as you pleased...but if they deemed it necessary they would close ICU and not let you in at all...so if could be a hard place to visit. The second time that I went to the hospital the ICU unit was not letting visitor in and I did not have much time to wait and see when they would let you in. So I went back the following day. I did get in to visit my Grandma...but it seemed like she was so confused. They had told us that they were having a problem with her at night fighting them and threatening to call the police...not really remembering that she was in the hospital...they called it Sunset Syndrome. When I visited she knew who I was, but she just did not seem to be herself. She seemed a little bit confused and out of herself. They told us that some of this could be the medicine. One of the blood pressure medicines can sometimes cause confusion and also she had, had a reaction to a medicine for nausea and that could cause some confusion too. Last Friday they moved her to a regular floor but I did not get a chance to visit her there...she came home of Monday. So yesterday I visited her at her house. It was so nice to see her there. She is doing well. This time I trust that she will remember my visit. I was able to be there when the nurse came for a visit...so it was nice. Grandma is doing well and that is what counts. She is 71 years old and probably has quite a few left. She is ornery enough that this is not going to be something that get her down, I am sure of that.

Last week I ran the kitchen at Grissom for the Catholic Heart Workcamp. I had to be there early in the morning and then again in the afternoon evening. I was so tired early night. It was fun, but tiring. I met a lot of neat people and look forward to next year. They had 400 kids that participated and went out in to the community to work. They served 400 kids for breakfast and dinner. They also packed a lunch for them every day. They run this camp through out the country 40 times this summer. Some camps run at the same time as others. The kitchen staff was a lot of fun to work with and they sure can get things done fast. The whole staff put their hearts into this camp. Each staff member has a story about being led to serve God! It was really neat. I wish that I had time to watch them each night.

The same week as Workcamp... Kyle and Jim went to Cub Scout Day Camp. We were one busy family. I did not see much of them because of the hours that I was working. They had a great time. It was a little bit different this year so that they could have more time on the ranges, but they still have tons of fun.

We were supposed to leave Friday to go to my younger brother's. My cousins wedding was Saturday and we were all going to drive in together...but we were so tired after doing the camps all week that we decided to leave Saturday morning. We drove down by ourselves. Got checked into the hotel...then got ready for the evening wedding. The wedding was so beautiful and Jessica made such a wonderful looking bride. Hard to imagine that she is old enough to get married. Then the reception. The reception was very nice...we stayed late and enjoyed plenty of dancing! Kyle, Kierstynn, Logan and Cody had a great time on the dance floor. It was so cute to watch.

Sunday we came home and we relaxed the rest of the day. This week has been run, run for me. No rest. But hopefully the next few weeks will be restful.

Keep smiling.

My hubby the Dad

2008-06-13T06:32:00.003-04:00

Two nice posts about my hubby in one week...I think that I am trying to get something...LOL

Sunday is Father's day and as I won't have much time after today I need to tell you a little about my hubby the father. I knew for the beginning that Jimmy would make a great father. He was always great with kids. Had plenty of time to give kids when they seemed to need the time.

We looked forward to parenthodd almost from the time that we were married. We wanted to have children right away. One of the good things is that it did not happen quite like that. We got to spend a few years just us and I think that made a difference. Plus I think at the beginning we were not in the right place to have children. God knew what he was doing when he made us wait.

After being married for a few years we had Kyle. Even in the hospital I knew that this was going to be the best thing that ever happened to Jimmy. Kyle was born and Jimmy was right there helping to take care of him. He changed the first diapers...even that first poop...yuck. When we came home Jimmy would be the one that would get up in the night. He was very good about letting me sleep and getting up with the baby. I really think he enjoyed that time with Kyle.

As years have gone by and Kyle has grown. Jim is very dedicated to Kyle. He has let them know at work that family comes first and he will not hesitate to take the time off. Jim is a Scout leader and has gone on a few field trips. He loves the field trips!

Jim is a great Father and will there for Kyle though out life when ever he needs him.

Happy Father's Day Jimmy! I love you.