My space id

I have joined myspace. I need an ID - I need ideas. I am taking suggestions & then we will vote. So post what you think my ID should be ------> thanks for helping me out!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Well since I am now older, I guess that means that I need to be more mature. So I have updated my blog for a more "grown up" look We will see how long that lasts!

I had big plans for my "birthday weekend". I had planned on hanging out with 2 of my cousins, my best friend, friend, and family. Well, both of my cousins backed out, most of my family got sick & so did my best friend. So, that left Krista to entertain me the whole weekend all by herself!! She did a great job. We were NOT able to see the movie that we wanted to OR get pedicures. BUT I still had a great weekend. THANKS KRISTA - what a soldier! Grandma did make me birthday dinner & she, Uncle Phil & I enjoyed it!

Now, moving past the dreaded b. day - I am focusing on my new career move. I will be staying with Downey Savings based out of New Port Beach, California. But instead of underwriting mortgage (decisioning loan apps), I will be working with mortgage brokers to get them to use Downey as their mortgage company. I will be called a wholesale account executive - AE. I'm really looking forward to the change. A little scared, but eager to get going. I will spending the next month preparing for the transition that takes effect March 1. My "home office" will be in St. Louis so I will be going there in a couple of weeks to meet my new boss!

My Pledge to Myself

So, I made this pledge to myself to STOP shopping. I bought 2 things online 2 nights ago. Maybe I have a problem. Maybe this is ANOTHER one of my "addictions". Maybe I've become an "emotional" shopper. Whatever the case "maybe" - I vowed to stop. Stop until I figure out how much money I'm going to make at my soon-to-be new job. Which may take until May. But seriously, I've shopped enough to last me until the next season, right?

Well, to my delight, my vacuum cleaner died on me the other day. I've had this one for several years & it wasn't a very good one. Now, it doesn't sound so great because who wants to spend their money on a vacuum. Ummmmm - ME!!! I have been eyeing the Roomba. I did some research online today about it & I am very excited. I think that I will be buying it. Now, remember my pledge? So this is my way of getting around that, because I need a vacuum, I cannot help it that it also comes in the form of a new toy! Yeah - my shopping drought was very short lived!

Have you heard of the Roomba? What do you think of it?

Family Update

Grandpa is doing better. He goes to outpatient physical therapy 3 times a week. He still goes to dialysis 3 times a week. He is getting around a lot better. Sunday he ventured out & made it to church and stayed for the lunch after. It wore him out, but it was good to see him out & about.

Aunt Teri will be moving here with Cody in 1 week. Mom & I went and looked at her condo. Very cute. It will be nice to have even more family here.

Mom and Marvin's anniversary is today!! They leave for Hawaii next week. They are sooooo lucky! I want to go! But they so deserve a vacation.

If you are a member of our family - don't forget to check out the family web site. Also, Ted, Matt & I are working on the next reunion. So feel free to give us your input!

Weekend Update

So much to say, so little time/energy. I have been swamped with work decisions, school, personal life, kids, family, busy schedule, etc... I could blog a whole lot of stuff, but most of it interests no one but myself.

Let's see what I did this weekend - did some deep cleaning, cleaned all my ceiling fans & top of cabinets. Did school work. Started my first week of school & I think I'm already behind. Good start! Brayden had a basketball game. Cody had 2. Cody missed his baseball practice, but I took them to do some batting practice. Hung out with some friends & did some resting!

Today on the Early Show they had a segment about a girl who found her half sister & dad on myspace. I LOVE technology! They also talked about Valentine's Day & if anyone was wondering what to get me for Valentine's Day, Tiffany's is letting men design a 10 carat diamond for their special someone! Sounds good to me.

Blogging Dud

Believe it or not, I have not been motived to blog this week. Not only have I not been motivated to blog but I have had a pretty busy week. I started back to school this week. I'm taking a history class - not fun!!!

But my amusing story of the day is that I was offered a job today. I was shopping at Abercrombie and this KID asked me if I went to school around here. I said no, and left it at that. Then he goes, oh too bad, I was going to ask you if you wanted a job! UHHHHH - NO!

St Louis

This is my cousin Ted. I spent the weekend at his place. This is the first night that I got in & he is cooking me dinner. He's got skill in the kitchen! I doubted at first, but he did a great job on dinner.

I went up there to work on Friday. We just hung out the rest of the weekend with some friends. I had a good time, but did not get a lot of sleep.

I had errands to run yesterday, but I went to bed at 8:30. It was nice!

The Plan

I like to have a plan, a vision or an agenda as you might call it, and I like to stick to the plan. If you’ve every spent the day with me you’ve seen me in action. But if you think that I am bad now, you should have seen me before. I was REALLY bad. I used to plan out our daily meals, a week at a time. Breakfast, lunch & dinner – we did not derive from the plan. To my credit, I did have “free” days scheduled in. Then one time in high school, I planned out what I was going to wear for 9 weeks straight. And I stuck with the plan. Now I know that sounds extreme but you make good use of your wardrobe & you don’t wear the same thing too soon, which is important in high school.

See, that’s bad. I’m not as bad now. And as I’ve mentioned before, I’m working on being more flexible. K Dawg likes to tell people that I always have a plan and she knows that I’ll always have a plan for our time together, which is not true. When you are on my turf, I do always have a plan. I like to maximize the time that you are with me & make sure you get in everything that you want. Who wants to spend all their “vacation” time standing around saying, “what are we going to do?” But when I’m on someone else’s turf, I let them have a plan, but most of the time they don’t. Then everyone wants to know what the plan is. And then they look to me, then it looks like I’m always the one with the plan. So, now I come prepared with a “vision” of how I would see things going. In case, my services are needed, which they usually are.

Call me obsessive, crazy, rigid, or whatever. But the plan works. And when you have a plan & you don’t stick to the plan because someone talks you out of it or you change your mind in the heat of the moment then you look at yourself & think what happened here? How did things end up like this? What are we doing or going to do? How did I forget that or forget to do this? It’s because YOU DIDN’T HAVE OR STICK TO THE PLAN!

Sign of our times 2

This was the word of the day on the Urban Dictionary:

textless
In an email, IM, IRC, SMS, or MUD exchange, temporarily unable to write, as through astonishment. Compare to speechless in spoken language.
A: Remember that sick panda at the zoo?
B: Yeah.
A: She died.
B: ...I'm textless.

I'm not too familiar with being speechless or textless!

I don't think that my cuz E - reads my blog - but those that are related to him that do - tell him HAPPY B DAY!!!

Sign of our times

This is another Christmas moment from 2005. This is us taking advantage of wireless at the grandparents' house. You can barely see Uncle Mike on the far left of the picture on mom’s laptop. We had 5 of us using laptops at one time, multiple times of the weekend. It was a pretty amusing site.

I will admit that I am addicted to my laptop. Apparently I am addicted to a lot of things. Maybe I should read A Million Little Pieces after all.

What's your favorite "high tech" gadget? - Mine is obviously the laptop/internet but a close 2nd is my new digital camera.

Weekend Summary

I think that I am getting a cold or something. Join the club, right? Well I went to bed before 10 Friday, Saturday & Sunday nights. PARTY GIRL!!

Ate some good eats at Gma's Friday night. She made roast & mashed potatoes, yummy!

Saturday, both the boys had their first basketball games. They did great, but boy were there differences in the games. Brayden's game, they don't even dribble. They run around having a good time. But my boy was the MVP of the game - not just saying that. He made 4 of the 6 baskets of the game!! A good defensive player too. He even had an assist! Proud mom moment.

Then Cody's game - I thought I was going to have a heart attack. They are so aggressive. I was yelling way more than I needed to. Fouls left & right. Including several by Cody. He tends to be pretty aggressive on the court! This is some serious ball! After his game, we were off to baseball practice for 2 hours!

That night we met Holly & the boys for dinner & then went swimming at the club house of Pointe Royale.

Sunday was Carter's 2nd birthday - so cute! Happy for a new episode of Housewives.

How was your weekend?

Technical Difficulty

Well, my computer is in getting worked on today. I may get it back tomorrow. I have pics & posts on it that I wanted to post, but instead you just get my daily ramblings.

I try to post on a pretty regular basis. To keep my reader loyal ;) Some of you readers, need to update your blogs - you know who you are!!!

Well, it's been a hectic week. I have the day off tomorrow, I'm very much looking forward to it. I think I will finish up my thank you cards & finally take my christmas tree down.

Today I did MORE shopping - I need a full time job to keep this up. Anyway, I bought a shirt today for $1.99. It is a green short sleeve polo. Very good purchase!

I am at gpa & gma i's house today. Gpa looks so much better! I asked him if he's feeling better & he said no, but he is - I can tell. I'm going to see the aunt & uncle tomorrow. They are looking forward to me visiting, they have "chores" for me. They think that I can help them with so much, I'm glad to be of use to someone!

How was your week?

I headed for OKC Thursday - 1st was to go meet Katie & her "crew" at Chili's. Next morning we were of to Dallas to start the weekend of craziness. 

Met up w/ my friend Lindsay Sat afternoon after much shopping at Ikea. 

After getting into Dallas, did some shopping at the Galeria. We ate at the Cheesecake factory & took in some Dallas sights. 

After ringing in the New Year, we hung out at Matt's & called a bunch of people! 

Ended trip Monday by eating with the fam. Brother, Sister, nephew & Brother-in-law. Also, stopped by to do more shopping! 

The cousins! We spent Sunday - relaxing. Did some MORE shopping, had not had enough. Went to see Rumor Has It with K, Katie, Ry & M. Then we hung out at M's place. 

Welcome 2006

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Don’t worry I’m not going to ask you about your New Year’s resolution. I don’t always make them myself. I made one last year & actually stuck to it. I have not made a specific one for this year.

I will be posting more pics of my weekend later. I am heading back from OKC today. Mr. T left today to go to TN & Krista & I are hangen’ out at his place this morning.

So, I have been so looking forward to the New Year. I’ve been wanting a fresh start, wanting to let go of 2005, looking forward to the possibilities for 2006. Well, it’s here & now I’m a bit apprehensive about it all. The possibilities for 2006 mean a lot of uncertainty, change & closure. All those things can be good, but very frightening. I am surprised by my “fear” of the coming year now. Like I mentioned before, I’ve been looking forward to this time. I’ve been looking forward to the holidays being over, so I can move on & get going with “business”. Now that it’s staring me in the face & it’s time to act – I think I’ll think about it some more! Like Krista said last night, “if only we could look into the future.” But we can’t & I guess I’ll have to live with that & look forward to uncertainty & possibilites!

What are you looking forward to for this year?

My cuz & I at Christmas