Right this second

This is a new series which requires reader participation for different fun questions. I don't know what to call it yet so suggestions are appreciated Leave your answer and suggestion in the comments!

The first question is

What's On Your Nightstand Right this Second?

(don't clean it off first or tell me what you wish was there or wasn't there. Be honest!)

Side note, my night stand right now is a plastic tub that has a bunch of purses in it.

* iPod alarm clock
* purse to go into the tub
* eye mask
* remote
* USB cord for my camera
* coin purse that needs to go into the tub
* Uncle Phil's calendar

No picture because this was a spur of the moment post.

Genius Boys

So, I'm sure you guys saw on Facebook that Cody is in 5 honors classes. I am so proud of him. I knew he was so smart, but he really did not apply himself. And I know that people say that but he really was not applying himself.

Brayden just got his MAP scores (school testing scores) and 689 is advanced in the 2 categories. In communications he got a 698 and in Math he got a 709!!!!! Very proud of him. He is having an IQ test soon & hopefully he will be going into the gifted program.

First Day of School

Cody has not had a first day of school yet. School was supposed to start on Monday, but the school did not have his records. They do now & he has his shot, but they have not scheduled his classes yet. We BOTH hope that will happen soon.

Brayden did start school and he did ride the bus. As the bus drove away, he was sitting alone on the bus looking out of the window. It made me very sad. I almost cried. But then I looked back and a lady that was dropping off her kindergarten girl, was crying her eyes out. I felt so bad for her, I couldn't cry over my 4th grader.

When he got home, he was so happy. He had such a good day. When I was waiting for him at the bus stop, a lady that we know from church was waiting there too. We were both relieved to see each other. She was thinking about letting her son ride the bus but it was making her nervous, so we both felt better. Then I met the lady behind me, who has a 4th grader AND he is in Brayden's class. She asked if her son to walk to & from the bus with Brayden. It was really great!!!! I felt so much better. Everything worked out just fine, as everyone said that it would.

I said my little prayer of thanksgiving today as Brayden went off the the bus for his 2nd day!!!

Updates

Virginia - To make this short & sweet. We went to Virginia Beach, we stopped by Williamsburg and then our last night there we went up to Baltimore to Inner Harbor. We met up with the Poff family & really enjoyed that time. THERE IS A LOT OF TRAFFIC in that area - ALL OF THE TIME. We did a lot but still have a lot left to do up there. I really appreciated the Spillers' hospitality

Wardrobe - still doing my color weeks. Last week, I did blue week. This week was black week. I think next week will be light pink week or purple, I haven't decided yet. Probably light pink.

School - I found out the bus pick up/schedule and I have accepted the fact that Brayden will be riding the bus. He only has to walk like a block to the bus stop. And Cody will be home before he is so Cody can make sure that he gets home safely. I think I am more anxious about the new school year than they are.

I'm back in classes & should actually graduate with my first bachelor's degree next year!!! My new major is now Communication Sales & Marketing.

A decade in the making

Brayden's birthday was on Monday. He turned 10. I cannot believe it!!!! He is getting so big.

On his actual birthday, he was with his dad. So, I met them for lunch. We all sat together and had lunch. This is the first time that I have been face to face with Shannon for more than 5 minutes in the 5 years that we have been divorced. Lunch went fine and I was ok with it. But it was a bit uncomfortable. And Shannon was pleasant but he hardly made eye contact with me the whole time. Later Cody asked me if it was awkward. I told him not really for me but it seemed that Shannon was uncomfortable, he said that he was. Just because we have not done anything like that since our divorce. But I'm glad that we did it for Brayden.

WORLD wide web

I ordered some movies last month. I found this website from my scanning app on my iphone. And all the movies were $6.99. So, I decided to order a couple. $25 purchase was free shipping. The website was simple but nothing odd about it.

After about 2 weeks, we still had not received our movies. I sent an email and I got a response back that said please allow 15-25 days. I got a little nervous, but it had only been 15 days. The email had some broken English/bad grammar (which is a sign of phishing).

But we finally got them, AND I see why it took so long. They came from CHINA!!! And the covers are in Chinese. But the movies are English. Thank goodness.

AND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am looking at the photo below just now & realized that I just bought a blueray!!! I don't have a blueray player.

Back to reality

So, I am back from vacation, and I am not going to post my pics on here. I posted most of them on FB & I took like 300 pictures. I have decided that I do not have the time to post them again.

But I will take the next couple of posts to talk about my vacation a little bit.

This was my first time on the East Coast and I LOVED IT. We had a totally great time and my cousins the Spillers were awesome to us!! The boys liked DC the best. I am very surprised by that. But I think it is because they have read about DC and heard about all of the historic monuments but it is a different experience to actually see them. Cody said that he never thought that he would actually go to DC or the Smithsonian. They were awesome during the very long day of walking too. It was hot, we walked A TON and then we got rained on and the whole time they had great attitudes. I was so proud of them. I told them like 10 times!!!

DC was probably my favorite part of the trip too. BUT the beach would come in a close 2nd. Already planning my trip back!! Too much to do & I missed going to DC cupcakes!!

Back to School

I am currently on vacation, and I am having a great time. But in the back of my mind, I am still a nervous wreck about school starting. Probably more nervous than the boys. Not just because they are going to a new school and there is change this year, but because I am going to have to make a big decision on before & after school care.

Previously, not only did we live 1-2 blocks away from school, and my best friends lived in my same neighborhood, the school had before school are for $1 and after school care for $25 a YEAR!

Not an issue anymore for Cody but for Brayden, now before & after school care will cost me $120 a WEEK!! That is more than daycare for a school age kid. I really don't get it, but it is what it is. So, I really just cannot afford that. Then my other option is that Brayden would have to ride the bus. He has never ridden the bus. Cody hasn't ridden the bus in 9 years. I rode the bus. I lived and I did not have any life changing experiences on the bus. But the thought of Brayden riding the bus is just seriously giving me an ulcer. He will be 10. I know it will be ok and he will be ok. But I'm not very happy about it.

VACATION TIME!!!

The boys & I are leaving for VA tomorrow!!! Will be taking a blogging break, but rest assured that there will be tons of pictures when I return.

No Reason

Because I have a lot of clothes, I am compulsive, I have nothing better to do, I don't like to pick out my clothes, and my brain works in odd ways, I decided that I am going to start dressing in weekly color themes. This week was hot pink week. I have A LOT of hot pink. I wore hot pink all week. I have a lot of light pink too, so I will have a week of light pink too. We will see how it goes. I did not take a picture of every day, but here is a sample from this week:

This day was a Spirit day at work. We had a Western theme, but I managed to incorporate my hot pink theme!

Not Making Lemonade

I saw the Dr. on the Today Show say not to have lemons in your water because they cut the lemons, let the knife sit & get germs and then cut the lemons again. YUCK!!!!! Call me a germ-a-phoebe (because I am) but in this case, I'm not making lemonade out of lemons.

MORE Cosette

In my last post, my cousin Laura commented about how they fell in love with Cosette too. This is proof!!! But it did make me think of all the pics of different family members/friends that I have with Cosette. She is pretty lovable.
One of my best friend's husband & son with her.
Of course, Cosette & mommy.
Cosette loves her Grandpa.
And her grandma.
Uncle Sam & Cody with her.
Cousin Evan.
CODY is a good big brother.
oooooh, and GG. Even though GG say she looks like a dog.

I could not find the pictures that I had of Carter, our neighbor, Neviah or Brayden with her.

Cosette

Since my last posts I have added a member to my family. I would like to introduce you all to my daughter Cosette. We were "puppy sitting" in December and I guess she never went home. Cosette is a year old.

Only one person the whole time that I have had her has gotten the origin of her name. I did not name her, her breeder did. But still, her name is from Les Miserable.

When I was younger, I remember watching a TV show where these people kidnapped a dog & were trying to get a ransom. My mom has had a dog at all times that I can remember. I made some kind of comment to her about how ridiculous it was that someone would pay a ransom for a dog. She basically said that I was being insensitive and if ever had a dog of my own, I would understand. And she proceeded to tell me all the wonderful things about having a dog.

Well, I have had dogs since I have been an adult. I had a chocolate lab for 5 years. But she was an outside dog. I think
that we had 2 or 3 inside dogs but we did not keep them for more than a month or 2. I SERIOUSLY LOVE this dog. I have never been a dog person nor did I think that I ever would be. But this dog is so stinking cute!!! And she is small so I can take her with me wherever I go, so that is another reason why I have become so attached to her. She is so playful and funny. She cries when I leave her, even when grandma is watching her. I guess I understand what my mom was saying.

So, this stroller. Trust me, I have heard my fair share comments about how crazy this stroller is. Well, I know & I don't care. She is little, I do not like to leave her at home. I like to run and I run for a long time. She cannot keep up. SO THERE! I have a stroller for her & we like it.

Right Now

Due to the suggestion of a co-worker, I have revived my blogging. I had not really been too motivated to blog lately. Actually, I just have not had the energy. I'll start with this blog & see how it goes:

watching...My Computer screen right now but a lot of baseball at night
reading... BLESSINGS
listening... to my co-worker's radio
knowing... that I am blessed and that work is just 40 hours a week
drinking... Diet DP
wanting... to be on vacation
embracing... being single :/

Work, Week 1

Since my last post, I spent most of my time in Milwaukee, WI. I was there for training. It was training. Nothing too exciting. I met a lot of really great people & I am glad for the experience. I did manage to see the Cardinals play the Brewers. Other than that, I did not get to experience much of Milwaukee.

I just completed my 3rd full day at my new job. All I have been doing is OJT. I am still getting used to the schedule. The boys are finally a little used to it, and I am getting used to it. I will save my job duties for another day, but let me tell you about a man I met today.

Right now, I just go & meet with potential students of my co-workers. I had my first observation today & I don't' know a lot about this man, but he came in today to fill out his financial aid paperwork. I was warned about the people that come in (to a University known for online classes) that can't type or really manage around a computer. Well, 1st student that I get to meet was THAT student. He didn't even know his own email address. Talk about hunt & peck. My co worker Paige jinxed me on that one (thank goodness he ONLY has to fill out paperwork, turn in homework & check email on a computer). Then when we got to the financial aid eligibility questions, one of the questions says something about the fact that you have not be convicted of possession of drugs or a drug conviction while receiving financial aid. The guy pauses, and says "not possession, but selling". My co worker, just repeated the question stressing WHILE RECEIVING FINANCIAL AID. Then he was like, oh no. Whew, details, details, details. This student will be attending class at the campus - I'm guessing he is going to need face to face instruction. I get to meet with him again tomorrow because he came to fill out financial aid but didn't bring his taxes.

Matt mentioned that he would be interested to hear some of my student stories, but mine are probably going to be a bit different since my target students are working, adult students.

Movie Review

So I have seen a lot of movies lately. I'll give you a quick run down on the ones that I have seen. I probably will not remember them all nor will I give you a review on all of them. I will just review the most memorable ones.

G- Force - Ok - I liked it. I thought it had more of a story that I expected and was not a hookie as I thought it would be. I also saw Harry Potter, which hello, it was good. I feel as though I saw another kids movie but don't remember it too well.

The Hangover - Pretty funny. Kind of a guy flick. But I found it to be very funny. Just as funny as everyone said it was. I'm pretty sure most guys LOVE this
movie and it is probably funnier to them to us "chicks".

The Proposal - Hilarious. This is not really just a chick flick, but
seriously it was SO FUNNY. MAYBE "chicks" will think this is just as funny as The Hangover or funnier, but all people can relate to this movie I think. It is predictable story line, but it is the stuff in between that is so funny. My friends saw it multiple times in the theater already.

Funny People - LONG movie. It takes a long time for people to

be funny I guess. But seriously, it was funny. The storyline was
nothing of what I expected. There was a long serious part in the movie
it seemed like it drug on for awhile. But all in all a decent movie. Just too
long in my opinion.

The Time Traveler's Wife - Ok, I was super excited about this
movie. A little disappointed. I am usually not that critical of
movies. I am easy to please when it comes to story lines. But
this one needed to be better and had better potential. The movie

was not that consistent and the storyline didn't make 100% sense.
I understood the movie & followed but without giving it away,
when he travels through time there were times where there were
2 of him & times when there weren't & unless he was traveling to the future, there should have always been 2 of him. So maybe I just need someone to explain it to me better.

Julie & Julia - the whole reason I'm writing this blog. I really liked this movie.

I could relate to the blogging part. So Julie decides to cook her way through
Julia Child's cookbook and then blog about it. And YUMMY looking food. The
movie totally made me hungry. The only probably I found with doing something like this, not only are some of the recipes ridiculously time consuming, there is no way that I would like every recipe in a cook book. So not only would I spend a lot of money and spend a lot of time, I would not even eat every recipe. So not a realistic idea for me personally.

The only movie of the summer that I did not see that I actually wanted to see
was My Sister's Keeper. EVERYONE that I talked to said that they cried their
eyes out during this movie. Well I kind of expected that, but one person said that
people were leaving because they were crying so hard. Well, I'm not too fond of
doing that in a theater full of people. So, this is totally a rental.

My Life

So, for the past 3 years I worked for New York Life as an independent Financial Services Rep. I have worked from home for the past 4 1/2 years. I have really enjoyed it, but I have to say it is hard. Especially with kids and summer break. When I first started working from home, I had set things that I had to do. I had set files to work on. I only worked 20 hours a week. So, I got my work done and I still had plenty of time to volunteer, play with kids, shop and help with family. Then I started working "full time" and it seemed like I never worked 20 or more hours. I did not have set things to do and so I filled my time with all these other things. AND to top it all off I had a really good month in May and basically I did not work all summer. That might seem fun and nice for some of you but for me I felt lost. I felt like I was wasting my life away and doing nothing. I felt like I needed more direction. I felt like I needed more purpose and routine. So I started looking for a "real" job. I am happy to announce that I found one. I will be working for the University of Phoenix as an Enrollment Counselor.
I have to admit that I am pretty nervous about it all. Working full time and all. But I am excited about the job and excited to be working with people. And I'm excited about benefits and a regular schedule.

I have to go to training for 2 weeks in Milwaukee, WI. I'm ok with that. Thank goodness my mom is here to watch the boys. Otherwise, I don't know how that was supposed to work out. But I don't start until Sept 8, so I guess I have a couple more weeks of my vacation- like I need it.

Julia Story

When we are traveling I take pictures like this: Scenic pictures. Pictures of building/skylines/things. I also have them in my scrapbooks. Well we were looking at them the other day and Donna (Aunt Ev's sister) thought it was funny that I took these pictures & comment that I was taking pictures of the "road". Which I was not. HOWEVER, Julia did take pictures of our roads. Just the road. In Germany they don't have long straight roads like we do (highways). She said their "long roads" are curvy so you can't even tell how long they are. But she was shocked by our long straight roads & how many of them that we have.

And the worse thing that I heard about Germany was that scrapbooking is not really done there!! If it is, she has never heard of it or seen it!

It is fun to hear about the differences in other countries even in the 21 Century.

What a week

Whew what a crazy busy week. Let's start with last weekend. Friday, I headed to OKC, with a stop in Tulsa to eat lunch with my old youth group friends. Especially Angela & Giovanni visiting from Italy.Left Tulsa to meet up with Katie at Matt's new job to see him and to hang out with her a little. We had a little quality cousin time.

Saturday, Ashley came to OKC to see us. So had some more cousin time and then headed to two parties. A BDay party & Matt's 3rd of July Party that was held late due to scheduling issues this year.

Sunday I picked up some of my 3rd cousins Elliott & Oliver to spend the week with us while their mom & sister hang out with their Grandma. My great Aunt Ev that has pancreatic cancer. Monday, I took the opportunity to go work out, look for a new job and go on an interview for a job (it was ok-had a 2nd interview on Friday-I'm not sure how I feel about the job). Then Tuesday all the "kids" and I headed to Silver Dollar City - minus Cody - he had band practice.

Wednesday the boys got to hang out with more of Aunt Ev's grandsons Phillip, Michael and Anthony(Anthony is only 6 months old). SOOOOOOOOOO cute though.

Wednesday got some pool time in during the day.


Then Dixie Stampede that night. This is Julia (silent J). She is from Germany and she is staying with the Spillers this year. She loved Dixie Stampede. She really like horses & they have mostly formal horse shoes. And nothing that you could eat a meal & watch a horse show!!!

Thursday, the boys hung out with their mom & I went to volunteer at the hospital then I just took the two girls to Ripley's Believe it or Not. We couldn't believe it...

Friday was another relaxing day of hanging out & then that night we went to a Springfield Cardinals game. The Cards won. They played the Drillers. I was going for the Drillers. Julia wanted to make sure that she was supposed to be going for the Cardinals & she wondered if I was like the only one going for Drillers. I assured her that I was the odd one! Then they had fireworks at the end. She really enjoyed that. They aren't as free with fireworks in Germany as we are here in the states.

Crazy week but lots of good fun!! Happy to have this time to spend with this family. They go home today. Now Bray's birthday Sunday!!!

Winn Reunion 2009

This was our group this year at our family reunion in Branson, MO. Let's see, did anything exciting happen this year?

Ummmm, for 2 weeks Aunt Ev & Uncle Phil have been in St. Louis due to her health.

Wednesday before reunion, Mom called me to tell me that Marvin was in ER. He had cut himself & was getting stitches. I guess he was already almost done by the time mom called me but I decided I better go up there anyway.

When I got to ER, my parents' neighbor & friend was sitting there too. She had brought Marvin's dad up right after Marvin had come to ER. Good thing I went up there. I got 2 for the trip of 1. Luckily he only had a UTI. So, mom was coming home from STL to go to Grandma I's stress test. So we met her at McD so she could see the guys, then went to Gma's.

Friday reunion starts. Oh, Grandma I decided we were having a boring week. She ended up having a low blood count. The found it due to some lab work they had done. So she ended up spending the night in the hospital too.

But somehow, Saturday things came together nicely. Grandma came home and Lisa & Uncle Phil were able to come home for the weekend from St Louis. It was a good turn out and it was nice to see the family that was able to make it.

I have to admit, I was a little wired & stressed up. I drank a lot of coffee too so I was a little high strung, but I made it & I think with little casualties.