9/30 Things: People

9) List 10 people who have influenced you and how.

 Russ

I am sure this is a typical pick for every married person. Russ has allowed me to be myself; who ever that may be.  He's allowed me to explore and try to find that person and also still nurtures me.  Russ loves me for who I am.  I didn't really know how my relationship with my mother was affecting me until I looked at it through the eyes of someone else.  Russ helped me to get over the anger and just work on healing past it.  I can now say I love my mom...I just don't think we'll ever be friends like we were.

Amanda

My sister has always been there for me.  We used to fight like cats and dogs, but after we didn't live together we became the best of friends.  Mandy has always encouraged me to shoot for my dreams.  It's almost like she was my life coach.  I've learned from her mistakes and she's always been there to help me through times when I doubted myself.

Tiffany
Hahaha...what do you say about the craziest person you know?!  Tiff has been my best friend since the fifth grade when my family moved back from Washington.  She has always been the peanut to my butter.  (Get the nutty reference?  LOL)  I can't count how many times this lady has kept me out of trouble.  Steered my life onto a different path or told me, that boy is just plain wrong for you and saved me from a huge pile of heartache.  Even though we're miles apart I can just pick up the phone at anytime of day and talk to her like we just talked ten minutes ago.  I'd have to say...if I could swing the other way...she'd be my gal!  (She's gonna shoot me for typing that!  :D)

Ashley, Lyndsey, & Amy
This trio of ladies have been anchors to me in troublesome times.  Ash and Lynds are my best friends from high school.  We've each helped each other out of some pretty harsh times.  I don't think I would have made it out of high school alive without these two.  Amy was my anchor after high school.  When my life was changing, my mom getting married, she was able to keep me sane.  Amy came into my life about the time my mom and I started getting distant and I don't think without her to talk to...life would have turned out much differently.


Laura
Laura was a friend of my husband before we got together.  Since meeting Laura she has taught me how to tap into my wild side.  I am now able to do things that I would NEVER thought I would ever possibly do.  It's good clean fun y'all...just walking on the wild side sometimes never hurt anyone...you just have to know the line between good and bad.


Mr. Thelman
Mr. Thelman was my high school orchestra teacher.  He encouraged all of us to dream big and to be the best.  I think he is the reason I was ranked 18th in the state in 2001 for violinists.  Hard work and dedication really do pay off.


WOW THIS IS REALLY HARD!!!!!


I really think that's it y'all....

8/30 Things: Passions

8. What are five passions you have?

1)  Creating Art; whether this is through taking pictures, scrap booking, coloring, playing the violin, baking, or just general decorating, I love creating stuff.  I am currently obsessed with trying to sew stuff.  I recently took home 28 pillow cases with the belief I am going to be creating a lot of fun stuff with them.  I've already looked up how to make bags, shirts, dresses for little girls, and travel pillows.  I even had an idea of putting several together to create some clothing for full size people.  I also love to create music, whether its playing my violin, playing the piano, or singing I find the quickest outlet for creativity is music.

2)  Deepening and strengthening my faith;  I enjoy learning new views and ideas of faith.  I don't feel like a good christian right now and want to be a better child of God.  So it is a passion of mine to become a better child of God.  I am currently on a journey to have a childlike faith.   

3)  Defining who I am; For years I have listened to who other people said I was or thought I was.  I have always defined myself as a daughter, sister, aunt, and kind of just went with the flow.  What others liked, I liked.  What others did, I did.  Subsequently I don't really have an idea of who I am or what I truly like.  I mean there are some things I am certain of.  But I am in a period of questioning certain things and redefining who I am without anyone elses opinions.  (Luckily, my husband likes this idea.)

4)   My Husband and furr babies; These lovies are my whole world and I am so thankful that I get to call them my family.

Brutus Octavius, 9

Punky Brewster, 1

Dax, 10ish

Zoey Redbird, 3 1/2

 5)  My Job;  I love my job.  There is just something about working with the public and helping their business trips and family vacations be that much more special.  I love the satisfaction that comes with a job well done and knowing that in a huge snafu with lots of tension and stress you were the one who could help calm them and make their stay as comfortable as if they were at home.  Sure...working with the public is STRESSFUL and CRAZY...and you get some of the crappiest, grumpiest people on earth, but then other times you have the nicest, sweetest people come through and it just evens it all out.  

6.  I know it just calls for five, but after I wracked my brain for five I was coloring a cross at work and I got to thinking how passionate I am about anything Celtic.  Music, traditions, colors, lands....oye!  I love it!!!! 

 

Crisis/Drama Averted...I think?

Well lovies it's been a long week so far here in my little bit of the world.  Between working weird shifts for a while and taking advantage of said weird shifts to spend a little extra time with my honey...my sleep has been off, so I've felt like poo.  No literally people...poo.

I've been noticing my back has been really itchy for a bit and a couple of days ago noticed this huge welt on my back...seriously ewww inducing welt.  (Was going to insert picture here; but decided it might be a little too much sharing...)  Anyways, after several people looking at it telling me to go see a Doc and Russ urging me too...I went yesterday morning.

After waiting in a room for an hour my Doc finally shows up. Looks at it and says...yea it's definitely a bite, but I don't think its from a spider.  Have you been in the woods lately.  Um...no not really??  (Insert flash back to anniversary in Branson and spontaneous hike in the woods!) So I'm like wait...could it have been like a little over a week ago.  I was in Branson on Monday and we went on a hike then, but that's it.  She said yup...that would be it.  So it's a tick bite.  And there's actually two of them that are infected...one just a little more so than the other.  So now not only am I taking some serious antibiotics...which make me...laugh upon laugh...sensitive to the sun, but I also have to be rubbed down three times a day with bactracin, which is an antibiotic ointment like neosporin.  Which is okay cause I grew up with that stuff so no love lost there.  Plus, I have been admonished on letting my tetanus booster go for so long and told to get that done....um...yea okay...when you come hold my hand while some strange person pokes me with a needle...I don't care if you write me a prescription for it...probably not gonna happen!  And also told to watch for signs of....GASP!!!!....Lyme disease.  So yea...if I get a fever, headache, or flu like symptoms...or a ring around my bite sites...I have to go have a test run.  

Now I did a report in school about a billion years ago on Lyme Disease and one of the biggest things that jumped out at me then was most people went undiagnosed for years before finally getting help.  Most people didn't fit the symptom list for Lyme disease so doctors wouldn't test them.  So now I am totally freaking out.  Because and this is big...I don't know if I've actually had flu like symptoms, or headaches, or just aches because of the bite or if any of this can be attributed to my crazy work schedule here lately.  Luckily, I haven't had any aches (unless I touch it) or flu like symptoms, but I have had a headache.  I guess really at this point I am just watching the bites really closely for a ring around them and researching Lyme Disease to death.  

On the upside...they hired someone at work today!!!  YAY!!!  So my schedule should be going back to normal soon...plus..getting rotating Saturday's off!!!  YAY!!!  Work is gonna be harsh for the next two weeks, but there are a couple of things to look forward to.  
1)  Going to dinner with Grandpa and Cousin Michelle on Monday and;

2)  Going camping next weekend.  It's really an SCA event called Candlelight in Pine Bluff, but it's camping, and it's gonna be freaking awesome!!!! So I will leave you with this...it's a photo of Russy at an SCA event called Diamond Wars in 2007.  He was armoring up for battle!

Getting ready for battle!

At fighter practice...Russy on right and his best friend Daniel on left.

7/30 Things: Dream Job(s)

7. What is your dream job, and why?

Well actually I have several dream jobs:

1)  A Mom...really a stay at home mom who is like the quintessential 50's stay at home mom.  House is clean everyday..beds are made...homemade dinner on the table every night, but I'd also like to pair that with home schooling my kids too.  This way whenever we felt like it we could travel.  There are so many things outside to do that are educational and I believe that we're all missing it when we sit in school all day everyday.  


2)  I want to own a bake shop.  Could be a smallish hip restaurant that caters to desserts but has a limited selection of food or it could just be a bake shop that is walk in and take out.  I love baking...cookies, cupcakes, cakes...you name it and I pretty much love to do it.  (Or love the idea of it.  I still have as yet to make creme brulee)

All of these cakes were made by moi!!

3)  I want to be an English teacher.  I want to start this idea in high school where the higher levels read not only classic literature, but contemporary lit too.  The books read in class would be picked by the class.  Each student would be responsible for showing complete knowledge of not just the story but the themes in each also.  Each year the classes would get together and chose one "big" novel that they read in their own time.  A trip would then be planned for the end of the year that revolves around that novel.  Could be to the authors hometown...where the book is said to take place or where the historical relevance actually happened.  These trips would be an extension of learning that could happen outside of the classroom.

4)  I would LOVE to own my own hotel or bed & breakfast.  I love working in hotels meeting new people and dealing with the public.  This one I actually can't see happening. 

5)  My family has always had this dream of having a one stop shop of party planning.  I'd bake the cakes, my sister and her family would do the decorating and taking down, my mom would plan and do flowers.  I actually love to plan parties, but am horrid with flower arrangements.  I think this dream is doable even without my mom because my sister and I can do all of this ourselves.  

6)  I would love to be a writer.  I get these great ideas for stories and novels, but whenever I sit down to write the story...I just can't get it out.  I can get the concepts to paper so I don't lose it, but I can't write the dang stories!!!

 

6/30 Things: Hardest Thing

6. What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced?

I think it is a toss up between a couple of different things.  All of it has to pertain to the death or near death of someone I love.  These are are either people I am really close to or are the loved ones of someone close to me.

I was engaged once before Russ, and at that time we were both just kids.  But we knew we loved each other (or so I thought).   His mom was very....how do I put it...in our lives.  ALL THE TIME!  I realize now that it was just because she really didn't have anything else and he was her pride and joy, but then it just drove a spike between us.  We ended up breaking up, harsh words were said and it was pretty brutal.  But about a year later his mom had some major health complications and I was told she didn't have very long to live and that he had requested I come be with him.  Now not only was I his finance at one time, but we were best friends since seventh grade.  So all things aside, I went.  After she passed... sitting with him and trying to help him through it was just..hard.

But of course, nothing was harder than watching my husband go through the loss of his father.  In fact, he still going through it.  The week we were in Michigan was hard for everyone...and I don't want to say it was the hardest on me because it really wasn't.  But I do think it was one of the hardest things I've been through.  I didn't know what to do for my family or how to help besides just being there.  And I know that that in itself was a help, but I don't and didn't feel like I was helping all that much.  Plus, seeing the pain my husband and his mom and sister were in...was excruciating!  Russy still goes through moments when he gets completely sad in remembering his dad and starts crying and I don't know whether to try to help him talk through it or let him alone.  

The last thing that completes this hardest thing triumvirate was my daddy having a heart attack.  It wasn't a bad one and he is all better now...with a moderate diet and exercise but it made me realize that Dad's not going to be here forever and I really need to learn a lot of stuff from him.   

Anniversary Trip 2012: BRANSON!!!

Russy and I had an awesome idea last year to go on a trip around our anniversary that was small and pretty inexpensive.  Last year we went to Tulsa, but this year I've been begging for him to go to Branson and he agreed.

For those of you joining my blog from other parts of the country and planet.  Branson is in Missouri.  It started out as the Country Music Capitol kinda like Las Vegas.  HWY 76 strip is where every major performer either has a performance stage or has performed on one of them.  From there they added outlet malls, curio shops, Silver Dollar City (an amusement park and historical recreation of old westy type stuff), White Water (which is a water theme park), and other places to do and see things that most towns just don't offer.  If you have some time after reading my blog...just google Branson and see what all there is to do.  It's worth a road trip!!! 

Hahaha...looking back when I first started having difficulties and wanted to redesign the trip...I should have.  At first I couldn't find a place for us to stay.  They had just had a tornado blow through town about a month before we decided to go.  Then I purchased tickets to an amusement park for the wrong date!  Finally when we get there the hotel room...wasn't all that fabulous; but we persevered....until.....I found out the amusement park we wanted to go to was fricking CLOSED the entire two days we were going to be there.  This amusement park is called Silver Dollar City...it's awesome...I love it!!!  I KNOW Russy will love it and it only took me five years of being together to persuade him he needed to go...we finally kick the bucket and go and ITS CLOSED!!!!!  AAAHHHHH....still makes me want to scream.  So we quickly had to come up with a contingency plan.   Well here it is...we went to a place called Castle of Chaos.  It's an eight minute ride that's in 3D.  But they call it 5D because they blow air and water at you.  The platform on which you sit spins, your seat moves and all the while you are listening to a story and shooting at things...trying to liberate a castle from Ghosts that will not rest.  

Next we went to Ripley's Believe It or Not.  We both really love that show..so it was only natural that we go check out the museum.  It was actually really cool and we had a blast playing with everything in there.  My better and favorite pictures are below.

From there we went to the Factory Outlet Center.  Did a little shopping.  Found some amazing deals....found some not so amazing deals.  When leaving going for food we got lost and turned around which lead us to an amazing discovery.

On Shepard of the Hills Expressway there is a turn around/outlook point where you can choose to park and hike or just look at the scenery.  At first we were just going to look, but I really thought we should hike at least the first leg which was 1.1 miles.  Now, before I started my weight loss journey...this would have never been something I thought about doing...but I really wanted to do this.  We had alot of fun...took some great photo's and have to say when hiking...if your going only downhill for a large portion of the hike...before you want to go on a bigger portion of the trail...make sure you can get up the other side first.

Next we had lunch at Wendy's and then went to an IMAX movie called Tornado Alley.  Now if you've ever watched a show on Discovery called Storm Chasers; you've heard of this movie from Shaun Casey.  It really wasn't what I though it was going to be like.  It was more technical and featured a lot of another team.  I'm kind of wondering if since he couldn't get a lot of the footage he wanted if he teamed with them to put the movie out just to fund more research.  There were still some stunning footage of tornado's and just for that I would recommend seeing the movie.

After that we went to the Tanger Outlet mall.  This mall depressed me...the Disney Store was severely lacking in Lilo and Stitch stuff and most of the other shops catered to skinny types and didn't really have any great deals.  Although Russy got some great tools for REALLY great prices.  

So yea...had a pretty good trip all things considered.  It could have been a lot worse if I had just been allowed to throw in the towel and give up.  I even tried a new restaurant called Fudruckers.  It's a burger joint that was TOTALLY not what I was expecting.  We'll be going back whenever we're in town...and yes...Russy says we will be going back.

 

Castle of Chaos and Russy in the lower right hand corner.  He called me a tourist for this photo.

Outdoor Man extraordinaire...Russy on our nature hike.

Just goofing around in the wilderness.

I really really like this photo...just wish I had photoshop so I could fix the glare on my glasses lens.

You can really see it now...my husband decided on this trip to start trying his new hair-do.  The straight up bed head/rocker look.  Hmm...I'm still getting used to it.  I kinda like it though.

Butterflies at Ripley's.

Y'all I thought this was weird and genius at the same time.  The picture was made from toast...yes I said toast!

Bahahahaha...read the next photo for an explanation of this one.

Um...really!!!

 

 

 

Two headed cow...

This machine was used in Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang...it's a vacuum cleaner.

At the Promenade in Branson Landing watching the fountain.  We will be staying down here next time we go.

I think we need to get a new pose for the camera.

 

5/30 Things: Happiest

5. What are the 5 things that make you most happiest right now?

1) My ability to sing. 

 I sing when I'm sad, happy, angry...pretty much in any situation I am singing or humming to myself to keep me from either having a temper tantrum or killing someone.  I can't say that I have spontaneously broken out into song because of something someone said, but my co-workers and I have a song that we will just randomly text or say to each other that causes any bad day or moment to go away and smile.

2)  My husband.

Russy loves me for who I am and that makes me happy.  I just have to constantly remind myself of that fact.

3)  My furrbabies.

Dax, Zoey Redbird, Brutus Octavius, and Punky Brewster are my children right now.  They are spoiled rotten and they know it.  I love nights my husband has off because I get to snuggle with Russy, Bru and Punky.  And even though Zoey is our outside baby...she is such a cuddle bug too.  She gives the best hugs.  I always keep her in the house when I'm sick, because she snuggles and hugs you until your well.

4)  My Job.

A combination of the people I work with, the awesome hotel I work with, and the management keeps my stress levels very low.  My co-workers are very helpful and flexible (as am I) on when people need special days off.  AND!!!  They have these awesome celebrations every month for the people who work here.  Now that is worker recognition!!!

5)  My In-laws, Friends, and Sisters.

This group of fantastic people are....wow...there are no words to describe what these people mean to me.  My in-laws are like my husband...they love me no matter what.  They like me just the way I am.  My friends have always and will always be there for me no matter what.  And my Sisters are just the greatest group of women.  Again....I have no words and have become vaklempt.