school days...

i love school! i love working in one. i love being a student. i just love it. i took my first 3 tests tonight and i did gooooooooood! anatomy-A! med. terminology-A! pre-transcription-B. i'll take a B, not a problem. i was freaking out about the anatomy test. this class is making me use parts of my brain i forgot were there. it's exciting tho. i can't wait till we check out the cadaver! am i gross or what?! cassidy wanted me to ask the instructor if she could come with me! she's gross too!

so off i go to study some more. i wish i was this motivated when i was in high school. i could've kicked some academic butt.

blog on!

you know, i have a million things i need to do right now. there's laundry (tons of it!) and the little girls need baths, the dishes need doing, homework needs doing (my own!), the list goes on and on. but i was just reading through some blogs that i look at pretty regularly and some new ones too, and i just have to make a comment or two or ten!

first of all, i am absolutely amazed by the positive exposure that the neilsen family has received this last week! wow! i don't know these people and probably never will but they have touched my heart. and this wouldn't even be possible if they hadn't touched so many other hearts. see what i'm getting at? how being kind, and generous and loving one another gets passed on? go ahead, be amazed cuz it is amazing.

another thing i'm thinking about is just how great this blogging thing has been for me. even though i am not as diligent at writing as i am about reading, i love the social aspect of it. i need that. so for those of you who take the time to read my stuff , thank you. i appreciate your comments and thoughts and friendship! you can never have too many.

and i am speaking for myself when i say thank you for sharing your 'real life'. it is refreshing for me to know that someone else out there is having some of the same challenges that i experience occasionally. it would be great if we all had the perfect little life but we all know we don't. it's just nice to know that you're not alone, cuz there are some days when a person might feel that way.

so i guess this was just a little post about some observations that i've made lately. and how much i appreciate the power of humor and friendship of the women who blog. thanks. carry on.

the rest of the story...

so motherboard posts this really great story about how we met and i couldn't even get through it without crying. when she says she was a rockin' visiting teacher, she isn't kidding. she came every single month, with or without her companion, scriptures in hand and IN A DRESS! she had it so together and i was so jealous of her. see, i didn't know she lived down 'crack alley'. all i knew was what i saw. and that was this sharp dressed lady with her sharp dressed jefe and her perfect little things. she had this amazing knowledge of the scriptures and could sing like a bird! and she was so artsy fartsy too. why they made her my visiting teacher was beyond me. we could never be friends, we had nothing in common.

one day she showed up at my house and i almost didn't let her in. it was late in the afternoon and i was still in my jammies for goodness sakes! besides that, i was in the middle of a melt down and couldn't let her see me like that. i had been sitting at the kitchen table paying bills and as usual, our outgo was more than our income, our teenage daughter was testing her free agency, my son was going to be late for kindergarten (again), my mother-in-law lived with us, i was battling postpartum depression...and here's my visiting teacher at the door and she won't go away.

she came to my rescue that day. she took my son to school, brought me dinner, smiled when my mother-in-law insulted her and most importantly she listened to me. i can't count the times that motherboard has come to my rescue over the years. she is the truest of all friends. she can make me laugh when i don't feel like laughing and she can make me forget my 'cute little problems' after 38 seconds on the phone! i think we have spent more of our friendship laughing than anything else. (well, sometimes we gossip a little too).

once we went to 'time out for women' and shared a hotel room with 2 other gals and (i swear!) laughed ALL NIGHT LONG! we finally turned the lights off so we would shut up but then we all just laughed in the dark! i bet we only got about an hour sleep that night! what fun. i love that she is as nutty as i am, that we laugh at the same things, love the same books and movies, can tell each other anything and everything (and do).

so motherboard, my friend, thank you for showing up that day and for every day after that. what would i do without you? i love you.
and for those of you who haven't done their visiting teaching this month, GET OUT THERE! you never know ...

i'm awesome!

so did you hear?! i am a winner! really. i am. i won a blog give away! and it has a bunch of cute stuff, too. including a straw bag (because everyone knows i adore straw bags!). it was at mikki's site but since i haven't taken motherboard's class on how to link to other people's blogs yet, you'll have to find it for yourself. and boy will you be jealous!

i was so excited when i won i called my friend motherboard to tell her and had to leave a message. she's getting back at me for hardly ever answering my phone, or maybe she was doing something frivolous like nursing her baby or cooking dinner. i don't know. apparently i didn't hang up when i thought i did and she got an ear full of me sing songing about how awesome i am! i would be totally embarrassed if it was anyone but her! (we know stuff about each other that would keep you laughing for weeks!)

anyways, i'm pretty jazzed about this giveaway. maybe i'll do one of my own. first i have to learn how to post pictures, and link, etc... maybe i'll try to talk motherboard into teaching an online blogging class. because you know with 3 things, a nursing moxie, a jefe and car funeral to arrange, she has oodles of free time!

NOT.

second mortgage...

oh my goodness...is everyone else freaking out about the price of gas? when i fill up my tank i swear i come real close to stroking out. i have a mini van people. $75.00 to fill it up. hello! gas is finally down to $3.95, a couple of weeks ago it was $4.05! unbelievable. this is in illinois, btw.

just curious, what are you spending for gas and what do you do to keep from having to take out a second mortgage to take a family trip? seriously.

oh yeah...i got some quirks alright

okay. this is soooooooo lame. i didn't get tagged but i saw this on on someone's blog today and wanted to participate anyway. so i will pretend that my imaginary blogger friend tagged me and wanted to know 3 of my quirks. told you i was lame.

anyways, here goes:

1. funky breath! and not just your regular morning 'i haven't brushed my teeth yet' breath. i'm talking the kind that smells like other stuff. ex: i had a dentist who's breath smelled like cigars! can you believe that? and one time when i was a little girl my mom almost beat up santa claus because he was breathing his nasty whisky breath on the kids! i cannot do funky breath.
2. mean moms! if i am in the grocery store and i hear a mom yelling at her little kids it takes all the energy i have not to smack her! i don't mean the stern 'i'm the mommy and you need to listen to me' tone of voice. i'm talking about the total lack of self-control, venom spewing, 'someone call the authorities before i kill my own child' kind of behavior. come on lady, let's take this outside.
3. being late! and this might surprise you, but i don't mind too much if other people are a little late. but it drives me right out of my gourd that i cannot be on time. i can make an appointment, prepare 2 hours early and still be 15 minutes late! this is no joke. i am late to church almost every sunday. which is ridiculous because you can almost see the church from my house. pathetic.

sadly, there's more where those came from. these are are my top 3. so now you know. you better read this fast before i decide to delete it.

your mom goes to college...

funny but true. i did it. i enrolled at the local college to finish my medical transcription certificate. probably the bravest thing i've done in a year. (what a wimp). stuck in my comfort zone. either to scared or too tired to venture out. well not any more. i am so excited. i am also scared to death.

i had to go in today and submit a writing sample. scary. this blog is about all the writing i do. before i left gracie and cass reminded me to say a prayer. boy did i pray hard. first, that i would have a clear mind and do well. second, that there would be a choice of topics and third, that i would have a clue about at least one of them! this was the one i picked: the american family used to be characterized by a working father, a homemaker mother and several well behaved children. in what ways is your family similar/different from this past typical image of the american family?

whew! i just started writing and before i knew i had over a page of essay done and was feeling pretty good about it. now i know we aren't the cleavers but i think we represent the typical family. and apparently the person reading the essay appreciated it because the note that came back said 'thanks for the occasional laugh'. typical and funny.

cool.

girl's camp...

i didn't get to go this year. so sad. i had a blast last year (except when it was raining all over my stuff). alyx left this morning and i already miss her. alot. she is one of the few people who can make me laugh when i don't feel like laughing, or smile when i don't feel like smiling. she is just naughty enough to remind me that she is normal 15 year old girl.

speaking of naughty...she has sent me many texts from her cell phone today. we do that alot. just silly chit chat between us. then it occurred to me that she wasn't supposed to take her phone to girl's camp. 'no electronic devices allowed' to be exact. i mentioned it in my last text. her phone must have died because i haven't heard a peep out of her since. yeah, right.

yep, it's gonna be a long week.

good news, bad news...

so i get this message this morning telling me not to go in to work tonight. what? i am pretty sure that you have to actually show up at work to get that little gem they call a paycheck at the end of the week. so i start thinking all kinds of crazy thoughts. the warehouse burned down. the computers crashed. the company was bought out. free day?! then reality sets in, could i have been fired? canned? given the boot? bingo. that's the bad news.

i am still considered a temporary employee so not only can they dismiss you at any time during the first 90 days, they don't even have to tell you why! sweet of them, don't you think? i could never have job where i have to be mean to people. at first if was freaking out cuz you know that little gem of a paycheck i get at the end of the week? i need that! my family needs that! i 'll admit that the job was really hard and the hours absolutely sucked the life right out of me but i did it for the paycheck! and now...?

well that's the good news. when i called the service to see what was going on she offered me another job. a day job (yay!) at a medical clinic (yay!) purging old medical files (yay!) for more money (woohoo!) what she didn't know is that i have been praying long and hard for this change. the first thing i did after getting off the phone was thank my Heavenly Father for hearing me even when some days i wasn't sure if he did. i feel so blessed.

what a great day.