Merry Christmas

Click here for my holiday greeting to you:

I'm an Elf

Wii

So, this post consists of 2 important facts. First of all, I found a Wii. I, like hundreds of other crazy people, have been hunting one of these things down for weeks. I happened to be walking through the electronic department when I saw the lady stocking the Wiis. So not only did I buy one, I bought 2. That is pretty exciting shopping right there!!! I really thought it was a miracle.

2nd, I tried to sell the 2nd Wii on ebay. That was my first selling ebay experience. I have purchased plenty. But this is my first time selling. Well the experience went unfulfilled. I ended up selling the Wii privately before the auction ended. I had 3 private offers. One at a premium. But I ended up selling it to a member of the family. I sold it to my 2nd cousin. When she found out that I had an extra one, she was so excited. And that is why I bought 2. Not to sell at a premium on ebay but so I could share the joy of such a great purchase with someone else close to me. She thought it was a miracle too.

Have you ever sold anything on ebay?

Who's Listening?

I listen to a lot of hip hop. Well a lot of times we listen to our music, listen to the beat and pretty much ignore the words. The other day Mr. T told me he liked this song, and I repeated some of the words to him, his response was, "I don't know I just like the beat." I'm the same way.

But try listening to hip hop with a 5/6 year-old and you will learn quickly what the words are & you will start listening to them more.

Thanks to Brayden and him listening to some of the songs, I know pay attention to the words in a song. Thus not listening to hip hop as much. After being told, "we aren't supposed to have secrets" and then being asked, "what is a dirty little secret", "why would you want a girlfriend that is wrong" and "why is she a murderer?" I'm pretty leary of the music we listen to. Even with the Christmas music. So far, I've gotten "how can there be 12 days of Christmas?" I'm waiting for why was the mommy kissing Santa Clause?

Deck the Halls

This past weekend, we finally put up the tree. We did a bunch of shopping including getting our ornaments for this year.

I also went to a Home Interior Party on Friday night. Home Interior is not typically my style of decor, but I went with a friend. They had a ton of really cute Christmas stuff. So I bought and I bought a lot. Too much. Then they had this center piece, which I liked. The lady said that whoever booked a show for January would win that center piece. So I ended up booking my own party for January & I got this beautiful center piece.

I thought I had it bad...

While I was in the airport waiting for my flight to Chicago this past weekend, I met a lady from Alaska. She came to Springfield for jaw surgery. So she had been here for 6 weeks. That day she had her flight from Springfield cancelled & missed her connection at O’Hare to Chicago. Then she could not get another flight out of Springfield for 3 more days to go to Alaska.

But prior to her coming to Springfield, she said that she had a flood at home and was without power for 9 days. She was not able to be at her house for 9 days, went home for 1 day and then headed for Springfield.

After her surgery, she went fishing, got stuck in mud, fell & hit her face. She had to have her surgery redone. I felt so bad for her. And she was doing this all alone because her husband had to stay home and work.

THEN she tells me that on a separate flight she said that the nose gear of the plane came off. And they were skidding on the nose of the plane down the run way. This made me think of a time in Memphis when this guy called me the jinx of the flight. Well I wanted to pass this title on to this lady in the airport.

The Break / Up

I feel like I’m living Jennifer Aniston shows/movies. The Suitor and I were on “a break”. We were on a break to contemplate our future.
When I think about being on a “break”, I think of Ross & Rachel and what Ross did on their “break”. Luckily this did not turn into a Ross & Rachel break.

Then there is the Break Up. Where the break up snow balls due to two stubborn people not saying how they really feel. In an effort avoid a scene like that, I try to tell how I feel also because I am not one to keep my mouth shut. But there were times that I thought that I should not say how I feel because what difference would it make? And I knew that he was not saying things that he felt. So I had put this in God’s hands. I had decided that I want to be with him and continue our “future” together. But I cannot control what happens between us, no matter how much I want to. Because for some reason the Suitor will not let me control him, how dare he!

But I made another trip to Chicago to see him this past weekend. We talked & had a really good weekend. He said the sweetest things to me & things that I have waited my whole life to hear. He said that he wanted to be with me too. Me and my boys. I could go on, but it is a lot of mushy stuff & like I said we had a really good talk and decided to continue seeing each other.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

These are some of things that I am thankful for and not so thankful for during the past weekend and holiday season. You decide which is which…

1. My family especially my boys
2. My job
3. The family web site
4. My health & the good health of my family
5. The woman that cut in front of me at lunch on Friday
6. The man that cut in front of me & that I had to push off of me
7. The short lines at SDC, when we went on Thursday
8. Happy Feet that I went to see with the boys that helped lift my spirits
9. Saving money on Black Friday by shopping at 4 PM when everything was sold out
10. Losing my voice over the weekend (that is what the family is thankful for)
11. And stressing out over the weekend about my Series 6 exam (to sell securities) that I passed yesterday!

I'm a cheese head

Last weekend I went to WI. My first time to WI. It was The Suitor's birthday. He wanted to go to Lake Geneva, WI and go to an Italian food restaraunt there that he likes. So we did. I wanted to go on a tour of a cheese factory, but I could not find a cheese factory before hand. So I figured that we could stop at the information area and find a cheese factory. When we stopped the lady told us that there was not a factory for over 100 miles and that cheese is made in the morning so all tours take place in the morning. She gave us a map of all the factories & I saw one that looked pretty close. I asked her how far that one was, she replied "90 miles." Then I saw another & asked how far that one was, she replied "60 miles." And never skipped a beat. Oh well, 60 miles was further than we wanted to travel for just our day trip. She was right about the AM tours though.

We did go to a cheese store & tried several samples of cheese. Bought some for gifts & bought some salami too. We had a really good day in WI.

Sweetest Day

Last Saturday was Sweetest Day. To find out more about Sweetest Day, click here http://www.theromantic.com/sweetestday.htm

So anyway, The Suitor informed me that it was Sweetest Day the Thursday before. Which gave me time to get a card, get it in the mail, and he would get it ON Saturday. Well when he found out that evening that I got a card and he did not, he was rushed to try to figure something out. I also informed him that I would be in OKC at MrT's house on Saturday too.

He decided that he could get me a gift & a card and send it overnight for Saturday delivery. As to not let me out do him. He was so upset that he even told me about Sweetest Day. Then he could have gotten me a card & I would have not gotten him anything and then he would have something to hold over me, "Remember when YOU forgot about Sweetest Day?".

Well, Sat no delivery, Monday I was back home so FedEx, missed the Sat delivery portion of the Airbill. The Suitor had it re-routed to my house. But FedEx delivered it to Mr. T on Monday, picked it up and let it sit in there office until Wednesday. Well I was heading back out of town on Friday. So the Suitor called FedEx AGAIN, and had it re-re-routed to HIS house. So a week later, the package ends up full circle back to him and I opened up the semi dead flowers almost a week later at his place.

It was the thought that counted. What a great memory of our first Sweetest Day.

The joys of getting older

The boys & I are in OKC this weekend. We are going for a wedding and to visit some family & friends.

On the trip there, Cody wanted to pump gas, so I let him. Fun for him nice for me. So I will continue to take advantage of his services while he still enjoys doing them.

A Decade

WOW, a lot can happen in 10 years. I went to Tulsa for my 10 year high school reunion last weekend. It was ok. I saw 3 of my really close friends. Saw a lot of people that I had forgotten about and did not see some that I wanted to catch up with, oh well.

It was a little weird for The Suiter, who joined me. But he had a good time all in all. Minus the hotel room problems that we had.

Everyone kept saying how much I looked the same. Well they all looked the same too. Some had put on some weight, but I was amazed how 10 years had not changed most.

So here are 2 of my senior pictures - mind you I had my hair permed a week before pictures and then straightened again 3 weeks later before school started back up. So no one even saw me with permed hair.

Are you or did you go to your high school reunion? Who changed the most? You or someone else?

Back to my roots

2 weekends ago, I was back in Chicago and the Suitor and I went to eat Korean food. He has been wanting to take me for Korean food for a long time. I was not impressed. He said that it was not good Korean food. I just kept thinking no wonder I never missed this stuff.

When I told Mr. T about the experience he asked if I felt at home.

Then later, the Suitor said that he realized that he said 2 negative things about my Korean background, but then he said that he knew more about Korean culture than I do.

How politically incorrect are these people??

The Suitor

Mr. T and I had decided several months ago that if I were to discuss my boyfriend on my blog that I would take a page from Stephanie’s blog & refer to him as The Suitor. But due to the nature of our relationship, I decided not to blog about him. But now it is time. But due to the nature of his business, things will remain pretty vague.

So The Suitor came for a visit for Labor Day weekend. It was a pretty lazy weekend. We did a bunch of family stuff, went on the wooden go carts, played putt-putt, went to see Talladega Nights and of course did the lake thing. We really enjoyed our time together. Met tons of family, including the boys for the first time. It went great.

I almost titled this Guys are Guys. Because no matter what The Suitor is a guy. He is a great guy. I can talk to him about things that I have never been able to talk to anyone else about. He is easy to talk to about anything and everything. He likes to talk/communicate just as much as I do. We have a ton of stuff in common. He is anal about most things and I thought that he was very observant about things. BUT I went to get my hair cut on Friday. He knew I went to get it cut. When I got back, I just raved about how well my hair lady did on my hair. I have been going to her for years. But she did the best job ever on my hair this time. I just was so happy and kept talking about it. And what does The Suitor say? “I guess I’ll sound like a typical guy, but it looks the same to me. No different.”

Arbonne Anyone?

Signed up for Arbonne yesterday. Needed to place an order for myself - so I signed up to get a discount. I thought that I would save some money.



Still doing Pampered Chef too. I actually did a party last week. May do another one in September. September is a busy month for Pampered Chef because they have their stones on sale. PLUS they came out with new stuff for September. I realized that I have been "doing" Pampered Chef now for almost 4 years. AND I am still getting more and more of their stuff & still loving it.

Oh... besides those I still have my "regular" jobs too. Still working for Downey in the mortgage department. And I am still working on getting my Series 6 & 63 licenses so I can sell mutual funds. But right now I am still doing some financial services with New York Life.

I did decide to take a semester off from school. Hopefully start up again in the spring, once I have obtained my 6 & 63 license. Yeah, I guess I'm staying pretty busy.

First Day of School

The boys starte school on Thursday. This is Bray's first day of real school. This is his teacher Mrs. Boyer. He was not too excited, but said that he did have fun.

Cody was excited about school and enjoyed his first day of 6th grade!

Happy Birthday Brayden

Another Spiderman birthday at Chuck E Cheese.

Happy Birthday Brayden

I've been extra busy this week at work, so here is a cute pic of Bray in honor of his 6th birthday today!! I will post pics from his Chuck E Cheese party that we are having on Sat next week.

When Inspiration Strikes...

I was looking at a Crate & Barrel book this Friday night and saw a room on one of the pages that I really liked. Then I realized that I had a can of paint downstairs the exact same color. (Paint meant for another project, not yet started) I've been sick of my current living room look for awhile now, I just did not know what to do with it or if I even wanted to spend the time & money doing anything with it. But the moment hit, so I decided at 11:30 PM Friday night that I would start painting my living room. And I did. I finished yesterday. I love it.

Now I am off shopping for accent pieces. After all, I need accent pieces. I only had the paint on hand.

The walls are a chocolate brown. But I think there is a hint of purple in there (I am not too fond of that). Previously the room was a faux paint of tan, ivory & sage green. I am over the sage green. I have orange in the kitchen, I may accent the living room in orange too to bring it all together. Have not decided yet, or maybe just not inspired yet.

Update

First of all, my poison ivy is getting worse. I will spare you all the nasty pictures. But that spot on my leg is 10 times worse right now & it looks good compared to a couple of days ago. It has also spread to the top of my let, all over my other leg and on my arm. And my leg is swollen up. It has been miserable to say the least. I am on the verge of going to see a doctor about it & I never go to the doctor. I will see how it does this week and decide from there.

I went to Chicago this weekend. Pretty relaxing and fun. Went to Michigan Avenue. It was ok. I got down there pretty late on Saturday and apparently all the stores close at 6 PM. I was pretty bummed about that. I saw You, Me & Dupree. It was funny. I would not say one of my favorite movies. But funny enough. Saturday night I stayed downtown and went to Navy Pier to watch the fireworks. They were pretty good. It was crazy crowded there.

I ate sushi again this past weekend. I do not really eat sushi. I have had it 3 times previously and all within the last 6 months. We went to one of my favorite places to eat in the city called Shine Morida. I ate so much sushi (which was not a lot) that I thought I was going to be sick. The final straw was the last Maki Roll (some spicy tuna/shrimp thing) that was so huge I could hardly close my mouth & I was already pretty full that I really did not think that I was going to make it. So here is to eating sushi until you explode!

First Time for Everything

So far this summer, I have had a couple of funky skin things going on. Every year I get the typical bug bites and bothersome chigger bites. But this year is a first. I believe that I have gotten poison ivy. I have never had poison ivy. But as BJ said, there's a first time for everything.

Since I have never had poison ivy, I do not typically pay too close of attention for the plant. And then I have never really known what it would look like on my skin. I had these bumps that I thought was some kind of rash. It itched, so I scratched it... Then it got a nasty and spread. I still had no clue what was going on with my skin, until today when I showed BJ and Gma. They informed me that it was poison ivy & to quit scratching it. WHICH I had already planned to do since I had been yelled already about it by someone else.

So, here is a picture of my pretty leg. That is just one spot. It is all around the other side of my shin too!! And I still do not even know what that funky stuff on my other ankle was that I had last week.

New Ride

This is my new ride. It is a 2004 Toyota Highlander. It is really nice. It has 45,000 miles, a third row, power windows, cd, air, cruise and it is 4 wheel drive. Are you sold yet? Other than that it is pretty basic.

Salesman beware, I think I did a pretty good job negotiating, if I do say so myself. Thanks to some advice from an ex-car salesman. I first saw this one last Wednesday. I said that I would buy that day for one price. They said no & I said ok, I like the car but do not want to pay that much for it. So I bought it Monday for $600 less than I said on Wednesday. I guess patience does pay off. But I hated negotiating and playing that game. Glad it is all done. Have you ever had to negotiate for a car, if so how do you think that you did?

Week In Review

What a super crazy week. It all started last Friday night...

I went to see Fire, the Hawaii experience or something like that. It was a show by the Polynesian Cultural Center. Went with some family. Then went to grandma's to meet up with Terra, Mike, Matt & Krista. We hit the town, did some sight seeing, visited & headed to bed around 3 am.

Sat we were all up bright and early around 8. I drug Matt out for a walk, then the girls & I went for pedicures, we went to lunch, went to Uncle Phil's house to meet up with Ted & Emily, did reunion business, played Dominos with Aunt Ev, went to dinner and then headed to the lake for fireworks and a night swim. Headed to bed earlier, around 2 am.

Sunday went to church and then back to the lake for the afternoon. Rode the jet ski and did the diet coke experiment. If I could figure out how to put a video on here, I would show our mini fountain. Then I headed back to Oklahoma City with Matt's group. Stayed there until Wed.

Wednesday I came home, worked, car shopped and went to see the boys' last baseball games.

Friday I headed to St. Louis to work. Worked and spent the weekend with my cousin Ted & Emily. Crazy busy weekend!!!

Here are some pics, for more check out Krista's blog ... http://www.happyredhead.blogspot.com/

Fear of Pickles is Ruining My Life

This is from ifilm (link on blog) from the Maury Povich Show. Pretty weird stuff. I love pickles!

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2748349

Addictions

I was reading a post from my friend's blog today and she was talking about how she did not realize how addicted she is to her cell phone. Do not worry this post is not going to be any kind of confession about any addictions nearly as serious as in A Million Little Pieces. But it made me think about my so-called-addictions. So here they are in list form:

1. My cell phone
2. My laptop/internet connection
3. (Future addiction) my new GPS & maps & trips software
4. Network marketing (Longaberger, Team National, Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, Home Interior, etc...)
5. ebay
6. Blogging
7. Panera/Starbucks (Like Starbucks coffee & cakes better, but like internet access from Panera)
8. Shopping
9. My soaps
10. working out

So mostly gadgets and anything related to shopping. What are you addicted to?

Survey

Name: Kira
Birthdate: January
Birthplace: Korea
Current Location: Missouri
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Black
Height: 5'2"
Weight: 110
Piercings: Ears only - for now
Tatoos: not yet
Boyfriend/Girlfriend: no
Overused Phraze: retarded & jacked up

FAVORITES
Food: Gyros & all fruit
Candy: gummy bears, sour patch kids & red vines
Number: none
Color: silver, pink & purple - for now
Animal: none
Drink: water
Alcohol Drink: none
Bagel: asiago cheese
Letter: never thought about it
Body Part on Opposite sex: abs, arms, face

THIS or THAT
Pepsi or Coke: Diet Pepsi (but I do not drink soda)
McDonalds or BurgerKing: McDonalds
Strawberry or Watermelon: Strawberry
Hot tea or Ice tea: Hot
Chocolate or Vanilla: Choc
Hot Chocolate or Coffee: Mocha
Kiss or Hug: both
Dog or Cat: neither
Rap or Punk: rap Summer or Winter: spring/fall
Scary Movies or Funny Movies: funny
Love or Money: love and money

YOUR...
Bedtime: random
Most Missed Memory: Senior year of high school
Best phyiscal feature: hair & teeth/smile, I guess
First Thought Waking Up: random
Goal for this year: Too many to name
Best Friends: Holly & Matt
Weakness: shopping
Fears: no $$$$
Heritage: Korean
Longest relationship: 8 years

HAVE YOU...
Ever Drank: yes
Ever been beaten up: no
Ever beaten someone up: no
Ever Skinny Dipped: I do not think so
Ever Kissed Opposite sex: yeah
Been Dumped Lately: yeah
Been on a blind date: not yet

IN A GUY/GIRL
Favorite Eye Color: green
Favorite Hair Color: any - not red so much
Short or Long: short
Height: 6'
Style: trendy/prep
Looks or Personality: both
Hot or Cute: either
Drugs and Alcohol: no
Muscular or Really Skinny: in between

RANDOMS
Number of Regrets in the Past: ??
What country do you want to Visit: Europe
How do you want to Die: In my sleep
Been to the Mall Lately: YEAH
Do you like Thunderstorms: yes
Get along with your Parents: yes
Health Freak: yes
Do you think your Attractive: I'm told that others think that I am
Believe in Yourself: yes
Want to go to College: going
Do you Smoke: no
Shower Daily: yeah
Been in Love: yes and I'm not sure that it is all it is cracked up to be
Do you Sing: not very well
Hate anyone: no

Cars

I took the boys to see cars last night. We had a good time. The movie is around 2 hours. A little over with previews and the mini movie that Pixar has been known to do.

I liked the movie, but I would not call it a "funny" movie or one of my favorites. I was expecting more, so I was a bit disappointed. I do not think that the boys were disappointed but I could tell by the lack of chatter after the movie that they did not think it was too fantastic.

The movie had more of a "serious" storyline to it. Somewhat thought provoking. Just the pure animation is good enough for Brayden but I think the more in depth story was good for Cody and myself. I liked the storyline.

Have you seen cars? If so what did you think of it? What is the best movie that you have seen recently?

I saw The Break Up last weekend. I liked it. Probably one of the better movies that I've seen (I've seen Failure to Launch, MI3, and Ice Age 2 recently in the theaters).

Interesting...

Next month, a company called Atech Flash Technology will release the iCarta, designed to let users listen to music while in the bathroom and features a toilet-paper holder.

The $99.95 iCarta's four speakers are designed to resist moisture, and the device uses AC power to charge the iPod while it's playing. Atech says the toilet paper holder can be folded in if the user would rather not employ this unique implementation of multitasking.

When contacted for comment by gadget Web site iPodObserver.com, Atech sales manager Eric Liu said: "We want to create something that is different and brings people joy for buying such products. The product is even protected by our own patent worldwide."

Life

So I have been back from Chicago for a couple of days or more and things have not slowed down one bit.

My grandma had a heart attack on Sunday. She is doing fine now but just came home from the hospital today.

Marvin and my Aunt Teri have been taking care of Grandpa while mom & I have been watching over Grandma.

She had 2 stints put in and she does have heart failure. About 35% of her heart is functioning at this time. But they put her on medication to help. I guess her and grandpa are on the same medication for their hearts now.

Things have been picking up for me with work. Which is good. I need the business. It takes a while and persistance helps.

That's all I have time for right now. Sounds more like a generic email than a blog posting, but that's how it goes some times.

Walking Around Town

I am in the Chicago area this week for work. Instead of driving and parking we tend to do a lot of walking. There are a lot of things within walking distance, which make it nice. So today as I was out walking about I saw some interesting things…

I saw that an Ethiopian Restaurant is opening soon – so I wondered what Ethiopians eat. Here is what I found online – http://www.ethiopianrestaurant.com/dining_suggestions.html#first

I saw a man with a very large belly sitting on a park bench, with his button up shirt unbuttoned, in order to sun that belly.

I saw a truck stuck under the train bridge.

I saw a man who had been to the grocery store. He had about 6 bags. He was stopped in the middle of the sidewalk eating his groceries.

I love walking!

Theoden

This is my new nephew Theoden. He is SOOOOOOOOOOOO adorable. And I am not biased in anyway. He is just so sweet and cute. Yes, my brother’s son is sweet. He is just a baby after all. He makes the cutest faces. Did I mention how adorable he is??? And I gave him LOTS of kisses!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

Here are some pictures of our Memorial Day Weekend. We had a big lake day on Sunday with a cook out at my mom’s house. She had a house full of friends and family.

Monday I went out to the lake again with Holly and Carter.

The Graduate

Friday Brayden had his Preschool graduation. It was so cute. This has been his teacher for the last 2 years.

He was a bit disappointed though, that he has to go to school this week still as a preschooler, not a kindergartener.

Pllllleeeeeaaaaasssssse!!!!

I had two intersting things pointed out to me about kids recently. #1 why do kids think that the word "please" will get you to change your mind. And #2 why do we teach kids that "please" is the magic word. Just because my kids say please, nothing magical happens. Like me changing my mind.

With both of these observations, it has become apparently clear how true both of those statements are with Brayden especially. I guess I made a believer out of Cody and the fact that my no was no. But Brayden on the other hand feels that saying pppppllllllllleeeeeeeaaaaaassssse will either get me to change my mind or get him what he wants - which is to change my mind.

So thank you for the people that pointed that out to me and made me realize that "please" is not a magic word. I do not think that Brayden appreciates it, but I am definately more conscience of my no's being no.

Frump

It has been over a weeks since my last post. (that was oddly sounding like a confession) But I have been in a frump. I was telling my bff that I think/hope that it is due to the weather. I believe that there has been 1 sunny day since my last post.

So what have I been doing with myself?? Sleeping, eating and sleeping. Not being very productive at work due to my sleeping. I believe that I have put on a couple of pounds due to my over eating these days. Good times, good times.

I excised 2 times today trying to get myself out of the funkish frump. It might be working. I need it to. I am done with school and that kept me semi motivated. Now I am getting ready to start studying for my Series 6 & 63 licenses. I need those so I can sell mutual funds and variable annuities. I am most excited about that, since my long term goal is to be a Certified Financial Planner. I am looking forward to this next step. I love helping people with their finances, it is kind of scary actually. I get a little worked up when I see how people could be saving, making or keeping their money and they are not looking toward their financial future. Oh, I better stop before I get started.

So... my question would be, are you saving for the future??? Do you have or need any life insurance??? (just kidding, not really)

April Showers...

Let's just say, it's May and I am looking forward to the flower part. It rained all weekend. We definately need the rain. But I would prefer not all at once.

It started raining on Friday and continued through Saturday. Raining again now Monday evening.

So I did a lot of indoor activites. I was a bit bummed about the weather because I had a guest in from out of town. So we did not get to go out to the lake at all. I went bowling with some friends. I am not very good, but the 2nd game, it did fairly well. My bff Holly was the super star of the evening.

Saturday, we ran some errands in Branson & took in some sights and then we went to see a movie. Failure to Launch. It was a pretty funny movie. I know of someone that that movie reminded me of. That was the best part.

Sunday was a better day. The weather was pretty nice, but I had to take my friend to the airport to leave. But all flights were cancelled due to bad weather in other areas. We did not know this at first, so the flight we thought was just going to be delayed and we went to the mall. Spent the only nice day of the weekend in the mall. Then found out that the flight was cancelled. What is that about misery loves company. I am glad that I am not the only one that has bad travel events. Luckily for me when I was delayed I had someone to come get me & I was not stuck at the airport & luckily for my friend that I was there so they were not stuck at the airport.

I have a new nephew now too. He was born on Saturday. The poor mommy. Had to go through 2 days of trying to be enduced and nothing happened. So my nephew was born via C section on Saturday!! I have not seen him but my mom says that he is beautiful - no doubt.

I'm a good cook!

Really I am. But here is why I feel I must announce it. Sunday Cody was sick. He had some kind of stomach virus. He did not have a temp and he did not throw up. Just felt sick to his stomach. But this kid never throws up. Maybe 2 times ever (takes after his mom).

Then he still did not feel the best on Monday. Monday night I made the chicken taco soup. Cody and I both liked it. But Brayden did not. I made him eat it. Late that night, or early Tuesday morning about 3 AM, Brayden woke up and went to throw up in the bathroom. He proceeded to throw up a couple of more times between then and 4 AM. Now this one has a very sensitive stomach. He throws up all the time. But around 4 AM he proceeded to tell me that it was the soup that made him sick! I tried to convince him that he got it from his brother & he agreed somewhat but then said it was the soup too!

Both kids are better now, thank goodness - I ate the soup & I am fine. How good of a cook are you?

Garage Sale

This weekend was pretty restful. It was GREAT weather. I had a garage sale Friday and Saturday. It went really well. I sold a TON of JUNK. A lot of stuff that I wanted to get rid of and actually planned on selling & a TON of stuff that I thought would never sell - sold. I just told these guys that came in that anything on the two shelves that I had was for sell too. There was so much stuff on the shelves that I did not even know what was on there. Several men rummaged through the shelves & bought some stuff. THEN on Saturday morning this one guy bought almost 80% of the stuff on the two shelves. I WAS and still am so happy. I just cannot believe that I got rid of all that stuff. THEN he came back today to buy something else that he was looking at & of course never sold. I would definately call it a success.

We had great weather for the sale too. Yesterday and today rained a lot. It was good to have the rain, and good for me to stay in and get a lot done around the house.

Saturday night we went for a cook out at some friends' house. We had a really good time. We had tons of great food and then some of the teens and adults played volleyball. Good times, good times.

I started tanning last week - 1st time I have been in a tanning bed in almost 11 years!!! And today I received a call from my tanning place that I have won a free tan & free tanning lotion!! Just what I need - not. I only wanted to go a couple of times. I burned myself last time, in very uncomfortable places. Places that have not seen the sun in 11 years! So I guess I will go again tomorrow & see what damage I can do. Do you fake & bake?

Never too old to hunt eggs...

Unless you are Cody. He decided that he did not want to hunt eggs this year. I think it was because he thought that he was going to have to choose between Paint ball or egg hunt. He chose paint ball. But paint ball got off to a late start. So let me back this train up. Last Saturday, we went to our friends house & had an Easter egg hunt & cook out. That was pretty fun. I got some sun. First "sun" of the year.

Sunday the boys were with Shannon. I went out to mom & Marvin's where we had Easter dinner. That was nice. The grandparents were there, Al & Evelyn, Uncle Phil, Mia, Aunt Teri & Cody. We thought the Easter bunny had lost his mind since he could not remember where the last egg was, but apparently we just cannot count. Because after we gave up hunting, we recounted and discovered that Cody had more eggs than he thought.

So then we went down to the doc. It was so nice out. Cody went swimming, it was a little cool. The water temp is about 65 degrees. The lake is WAY down. But it was really windy. Mom wanted to get the jet skies out, but too windy. I went home and mowed the lawn. All in all a pretty relaxing weekend.

Easily Amused

A couple of weekends ago, I was in an Ikea. I have been in Ikea before, but not this one. This one had an escalator for my shopping cart. How fun is that??? I was so amused by it I had to take a picture. Thank goodness for camera phones. This is my actual cart (with my new purse in it). Anyway, do you watch American Inventor? I do not. So I do not know if there are any "great" ideas on that show. If there are tell me about them. Because I am continually amazed at this kind of stuff. There are some clever people out there. Not that I think that they are necessarily smarter than some of the people that I know. They just "see" things and are able to make it work. I just thought this was crazy cool.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CODY

March 29th was the Code-man's birthday. 11th to be exact. Like I mentioned before, I am behind on my blog postings. 4 more weeks of school and I am done for the summer - things should calm down for me then. I digress - anyway, last Friday Cody had his friends over for a sleep over. We went out for pizza and then went ice skating. He had Dallas (Brayden's preschool teacher's son), Colin (Cody's band teacher's son) and Josh (the Principal's son) over (am I supposed to be a teacher?). Anyway, the boys had a really good time. They were really sweet. They kept saying, "Miss Kira, this is really fun." I tried to get them to quit calling Miss Kira, but it did not work. We all had a good time. Minus the "incident".

Before pizza, I needed to run into Blockbuster to rent a movie for school. I was in there less than 3 minutes. I was paying & Cody calls me from the car. He informs me that Colin has gotten the boys wrestling. I could see them from where I was standing, so I tell Cody to put Colin on the phone. I tell Colin to sit down & that I can see him. So, I head out to the car. When I get out there, one of the boys Josh has a bloody nose. NOT from Colin - which I assumed it was from him. Well Josh is sitting there, blood running down his face ALL over his shirt. I freak out - like a good mom & tell him to pinch his nose. He pinches & lets go. I ask, "have you ever had a bloody nose before?" To which he informs me no, as blood is still dripping all over him. I tell him to pinch his nose & HOLD it until I get back. So I run back into Blockbuster, get some papertowels & head back out to the car. By then the nose has stopped bleeding. I had to take him to the restaurant with blood all over him & his clothes. Luckily they had clothes with them. So I sent the boys into the bathroom to change & get cleaned up. Josh handled it all very well. They all thought it was no big deal. They just kept apologizing to me, sweet boys. It was not big deal to me either except for the fact that this kid gets his first bloody nose under my care!!

So what happened? Josh jokingly pushed Dallas into the side of the car, Dallas pushes Josh, but in the face & causes a bloody nose!

I am used to bloody noses. I used to get them all the time, for awhile I had one EVERY night. Cody got them all the time. I would go into his room when he was a toddler & blood would be everywhere. Brayden has gotten one or two. Have you ever had a bloody nose?

Good Bye Katie

I discovered today that Katie (we are on a first name basis) is leaving the Today show. I am most disappointed by this. When I worked from home I would watch the show every morning. I like Katie. I think she is cute & fun. I was sorry to see that the producers made her dress so conservative & "old" though.

I do not watch evening TV, so I guess I will not get to see how she is doing. But good for her for being the first evening solo anchor woman!! I am happy to see her move to CBS, as I like CBS new better than NBC. Do you watch morning shows? How does this effect my life? It does not. Just something random that gets my mind off the "real" drama in my life. Good useless junk to blog about!

Belated Postings

Now that I am working full time it apears that I cannot keep my blog updated regularly. So, not only am I updating only weekly lately, I am behind the times. I am blogging about things that happened the week prior. Hopefully one day I will get caught up.

This is a picture taken last weekend in Tulsa. The boys & I went to the Tulsa International Soul Winning Workshop. I used to go all the time. I have not been in 10 years. I had a really good time. I got to hear Max Lucado. I really pleasure to hear such a great Christian author.

This group is part of my old youth group. It was like a reunion of sorts of the "girls". The man is our youth minister. I really enjoyed catching up with such great friends. I also got to see some other friends from the youth group. It was just a really great weekend to catch up. I miss them and remembered what great times those were & what great friends that they were/are.

I drove around my "home" town of Tulsa. So many memories there. I really never could say where my "home" is, but I think that label now belongs to Tulsa. That is my "home" and I have many great memories of that place.

Not to mention the fact that I still have family there. My brother, his girlfriend, my soon-to-be nephew, sister, her husband, niece & nephew. I did see my brother for a baby shower last weekend too. I am so excited for them. Funny thing, my youth minister in the picture above is the uncle of my brother's girlfriend. So we were at the same baby shower. SMALL WORLD!

Cody

The crayfish, crawdad or crawdaddy – a fresh water miniature version of the lobster. That may soon be our state invertebrate. Cody’s class was learning about how bills getting passed in state. And they proposed a bill to make the crayfish a state symbol. Our district’s state rep Dennis Wood chaired the proposal and put in on the Tourism Committee’s task. A couple of weeks ago, Cody’s class got to go to the state capital & give a presentation about why the crayfish should become a state symbol to the Tourism Committee. Cody was one of the speakers. It did pass in committee. Now it goes to the State House & then State Senate. I went with him and he did a great job, of course. They had a video feed from our state capital to the school. So the whole school got to watch. Cody was on the news & in the paper too. He was a very popular kid. It was a very cool experience for him & his classmates.

I made it home

I used to love to travel or fly as the case may be. I really did not mind all of my cancellations and delays on the way to CA. Yes, I thought that I was going to have an aneurism over the whole ordeal, but all in all I got through it with a pretty good attitude.

On my trip home, the flight from OC to Denver was an interesting one to say the least. As I boarded the plane (which took off 20 minutes late) I looked at my boarding pass to verify my seat. Yes, I have an isle seat. I never get up, but I like to know that I am able to whenever I want without disturbing others. As I approached my isle, I see that someone is sitting in my seat. So I look at them, with that look of “this is where I belong”. The couple gets up & moves out of the way for me to move into the window. So I ask would you like me to sit in by the window. Yes they say. Neither one of them even acknowledged the fact that I am giving up my isle seat. I was a little upset by this and even thought to myself “fine, waiting until I have to get up 3 times during this trip”, but I say a little attitude prayer to myself and decide not to be ugly about it. Then as I get settled after take off, I lean my seat back & feel this tap on my shoulder. The lady behind me, who does not speak English, points to my seat, points to the CHILD in the seat behind me and says no. Like I cannot put my seat back because it is getting in the way of the little girl!!! Ok – another MAJOR attitude prayer at this point. Patients, tolerance and sacrifice are what I am being taught, right? Lucky for this girl that she is a cute little Asian otherwise, I would have still been lying back (probably not). THEN … the people in front of me decide to change a poopy diaper right in the seat. That smell on a plane is NOT OK!!!!!!

Did I say that I love to fly??? Have you ever had a bad travel experience?

Part 2

OH – I forgot – no luggage when I was stuck in Chicago. Ok, so I get to the airport Monday for my 10:45 flight that is delayed until 11:30, which gives me 15 minutes to catch my connecting flight to OC from LAX. I board the plane, YEAH. I am on the plane. 11:30 rolls around, we are still sitting at the gate. 11:40 rolls around and now I am getting concerned. The pilot comes across on the intercom to say that they are having mechanical difficulties and they do not know when they will take off. It is going to be more than 5 minutes. More like another hour. So, now I have missed my connecting flight from LAX to OC. So, I exit the plane, go to the ticket counter & now they can get me to OC on a direct flight from Chicago at 5:05 PM. It is now 12:00 PM. So, I call a co worker to come get me & take me back to my office in Chicago. I stayed there all afternoon & worked. I made the 5:05 flight & FINALLY made it to the OC at 7:30 Pacific time. My luggage was right there waiting on me. Needless to say, when I made it to the hotel, I crashed!

I head home on Saturday – PRAY for a boring, non eventful trip home for me – thanks!

Life on the road

So this is what Mr. T feels like… I am sitting in Panera people watching and waiting for a flight. I started my day yesterday, dreading my trip to Orange County, CA. Why? I do not know. I just had this “feeling”. I arrived at the Springfield Airport around 11:00 AM. Ready to catch my 12:30 flight to Denver, then on to OC. After arrival, I see that my flight is delayed until 1:20. NO problem. Still plenty of time to catch my connecting flight in Denver, and if I miss my flight the ticket agent informs me that there is a flight out of Denver at 7:30 into OC. Apparently the plane had some mechanical issues. So the plane that is coming had not even left, I go up to the counter around 12:30 for an update, and the plane still had not left, moving the new departure time to 1:50, making me miss my connecting flight – and now the 7:30 flight is sold out & no more flights out of Denver into OC all day.

Plan B – I inquire as to if I can be rerouted – my airline only files to Denver & Chicago out of Springfield. So, I can catch a flight to Chicago at 2:50 that gets me into Chicago and a connecting flight at 5:00 to OC. I take it. 1:45 rolls around and this flight is DELAYED TOO!!! Now I am not leaving until 3:15, missing my 5:00 connecting flight. Now I have a 7:45 connecting flight. OK – I will take that. I have friends in Chicago, I will have them pick me up to take me to dinner during my 3 hour layover. After dinner, I call the airline, confirm flight is on schedule. On route to the airport (15 minutes) a strong thunderstorm comes in. I arrive at the airport, and my flight is delayed. The plane coming in is not able to land. They are sent to Detroit. No plane to go to OC. Now I have a 10:45 flight out. BUT in OC there is a curfew on flights. So I am going to go to LAX, and tax a shuttle to OC, but at 1:00 AM, the shuttle service may not be open. OH, and the weather is still bad, no guarantee of plane, so the 10:45 flight is questionable. FLIGHT CANCELED.

Plan C – Spent the night in Chicago. All flights direct into OC are booked for Monday due to regular travel & rebooked flights. So I am to take a flight from Chicago to LAX to OC. It is around 9:00 am, my flight is supposed to leave at 10:45, checked online & it is already delayed!

To be continued…

You are only as old as you feel

If you remember from my birthday post and some previous, I am somewhat having a mid life crisis. Part of my crisis is because although I am almost 30 and have some major responsibilities in my life, some times I do not feel or always act 30, or almost 30. And apparently recently people want to reinforce that with me. Or I was just lapping up all the flattery. First of all I met a couple of people last week that thought I was 24 – one person in particular I will be blogging about tomorrow. Then the conversation came up with someone else about my age. He said I do not look as old as I am, but when I start talking, I have such a professional tone that it is hard to guess my age. So I was telling Holly about this during our girls’ night out Saturday. For dinner that night, we went to a Japanese Steak House. The chef started talking about different restaurants & I said that I had been to a lot and that I like to eat. He goes it shows. I will just start calling Ms. Metabolism. Then he asks my age. WAIT A MINUTE – what does my age have to do with this conversation. So I made him guess & then some girls at the table guessed too. They guessed 22-24. I said no, 28. None of them believed me. He even said that he was going to card me. I thought I was going to have to prove that I was 28!! Feel goods for Kira and her crumbled chips (I was told that AGAIN last week). I think I will try to win a prize at the next fair at the age guessing game. GO LANG LE!!

So, another funny part of the night was that this chef wanted to know what my ethnic background was – surprise!!! I told him, and then he asked if I could speak Korean, I said no. Then later he said thank you in Japanese – do not worry Mr. T I did not try to say it back, but I did laugh out loud thinking about K & I trying to learn how to say it. We sounded like 2 white girls for sure. Anyway, after laughing about my own private joke, I responded with De nada.

Workin' Girl

I officially started my new position yesterday. I made 3 calls and all in all I would call it a successful day. I made 3 calls today & another semi successful day. But BOY am I tired. This working full time stuff is hard. These brokers just ask so many questions, they make my brain hurt. I was sooo tired - today that I was planning on hitting the mall after my last call but I skipped it. I just headed straight to gma's house. Now that's tired!!!

I was planning on having a "light" day tomorrow, but I have 5 appointments scheduled PLUS a haircut. Priorites, you know. So I guess I will be putting in a full day, which is good for me.

So, I had this conversation the other day with someone & I was wondering if you guys think that I am crazy? That's a loaded question I know. But seriously, when I got done with the converstation, I thought I was crazy. Now, I think that I am a pretty smart person. I think logically and rationally, most of the time. But this person said things to me that made me think I was losing it. That I was the one that had no clue about reality. And when I thought about what they said, it was so far in left field, I do not even understand what world they live it. Now I know that perception is reality, but what if that person's perception is TRUELY rediculous? I was so frustrated by the end of the converstation, I thought I was going to scream. I just do not understand how someone's thought process can be so off and then it maked me question my own thought process. Is my persception "off"? But as I conferred with my sidekicks - I was thinking logically - whew! But how frustrating to talk to someone that is so irrational. Have you ever had a conversation like that? Do you have advice for me?

Good Times

This weekend I took the boys ice skating. My Aunt & cousin went with us. The boys had to endure shopping before the big event, but I think they thought it was worth it. We had a really good time. I went ice skating a couple of weeks ago in St. Louis so by this time, I was more steady on my feet. I actually spent most of my time skating backward. Skating really reminded me of going in Tulsa when I was a kid with my aunt, brother & cousins. I really liked it back then & still do apparently. I had a picture of my triple toe loop, but I don't know what happened to it!

Grandpa came home Friday. I spent the night over there on Saturday night to make sure the grandparents were being good. They did well. Spent most of Sunday over there with them. Grandma was itching to cook, so it was my pleasure to stay for her good cooking. Grandpa had a really good day on Sunday & was in pretty good spirits.

All in all it was a really good weekend. Have you ever been ice skating?

What's new

*I'm over my "depression"
*I haven't been motivated to blog
*I am getting caught up on school
*I'm actually enjoying my classes
*My sociology class is way easy
*I spent the night at the hospital Tuesday night & got 3 hours of sleep
*I made 4 broker calls yesterday & it was fun
*I am making a lot of progress with my new job
*I came to an agreement w/ SRP - could be ending soon
*Grandpa come home today
*Moved my office downstairs this week
*I am in the market for a suitor ;)
*Bought the boys Charlie & the Chocolate Factory this week (I saw it twice in the theater)
*I have two great loving boys
*Brayden told me that I was the best mom with the best singing voice!!!

That is about it for the week.

Misery Loves Company

Let me just start by saying that I am in a really bad mood. I hate when I am in a bad mood. I get really tired and then I start having thoughts that I am starting to go through a depression. But then I mentally slap myself and tell myself to get over it, I refuse to be in depression.

I sat around the house most of the weekend. It snowed here and initially the thought of sitting around the house with the fire, doing homework sounded nice. But I got over that by early yesterday morning. I managed to get out for church, but it started snowing again and they dismissed church early. So I headed for home again. I was going stir crazy by yesterday afternoon. So I blame part of my "depression" on the snow.

It seems as though many of my family members are having a hard time these days. Some are in a depression. I feel guilty for not being depressed, so I blame part of it on the fact that I feel I should be depressed like the rest of my family.

AND then I realize that I am a woman and God cursed with me "that time of the month" and it really just boils down to that. I am just hormonal - like every other woman on this earth!

New Toy

Last week I got the new Motorola Slvr. I have been shopping for a new phone for several weeks. I was going to go with the Motorola Rokr, but the salesman at Cingular told me that Motorola was coming out with a new phone and to wait. Then I thought about getting the pink Razr. But I really wanted an MP3 player as part of my phone. An MP3 player, I think is the only recent techo gadget that I have not gotten yet. Can I just say how much I like this phone? It is fun!!

This phone is a MP3 player and camera. Now I just bought a new digital camera in December (which I still love). You can text message on this phone and I discovered last week how to email to a cell! It has Bluetooth. I also have a PDA, it has Bluetooth. So I send information to myself from myself. So MANY gadgets!!!!

Now, with my new position, I got a text pager. So, I can get blast emails from my company when I am “in the field”. I have this running argument with my co worker about this pager situation. I understand why they have it. But it is just one more gadget for me. He cannot seem to understand why our company is so antiquated that we do not get a Blackberry, do away with the cell phone, laptop, pager and just have one thing. Well then the company would have to provide wireless access for us to get to use the Blackberry. You can send & receive emails on this pager without internet access. I am sure it is a cost issue, which his argument is that it would be a write off for the company. But it is all about the bottom line and multiplied out, that would be a big expense. When I worked for the previous bank, I complained about how technologically deficient they were too. I think this company is no worse than any other large corporation. How technologically savvy is your employer?

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

I love Valentine’s Day!!!! I am such a girl!!! I know a lot of people think that this day is over commercialized, but I do not care. I like that it is day dedicated to love. I like that it is a day that someone would typically buy me a gift or it gives me an excuse to shop for someone else. I like the fact that I have gotten contacted by 2 people today to wish me a Happy Valentine’s Day that I do not talk to on a regular basis. I like the day!

I went out of town again last weekend, and I am just now getting back into the groove of things. I went to St. Louis to meet my new boss and go over some details of the transition to my new job. I am pretty excited about the transition. I will be schmoozing and I like to schmooze!

After all the work stuff I went to a wine tasting. I had a good time, but wine tastings are hard. I am not a big wine drinker and it can be a bit overwhelming. I hung out with my cousin Ted too. He cooked for me and Emily again. It was great.

Then Saturday I went ice skating at the outdoor rink in Forrest Park. That was so much fun. One of the best times that I have had in a long time. Then to finish off a great relaxing day I ate at my fav restaurant, PF Changs. Great way to end the day.

I came home Sunday to a greatly recovering Grandpa. He looks thin, but other than that he is doing really well. He is making a great recovery. He may even come home this week!

Lighter side of things

This is Aide Tammy. She was so nice to grandpa and my family, she took very good care of him. We had a good time joking with her about her “big hair” so this picture is perfect, her big hair is even blocking my grandpa’s face.

Not only did we have a good time with Tammy, but we were able to get tools. A nurse brought us that thing you use to look in people’s ears. So we looked in each other’s ears & noses. Good times.

When we were having our family meeting about my grandpa with the doctor, he kept saying infarct. But it sounded like infart. After about the 4th time he said it, I could not contain myself anymore, so like the adult that I am I laughed – out loud. That made my cousin laugh, which made my aunt laugh. The doctor hardly even acknowledged the fact that we laughed at “infart” let alone crack a smile. How mature are we? But after the meeting several other "older" family members admitted they had just as immature thoughts about “infart” as I did.