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!