Need To Blog....

OK, so sometimes I just have this NEED to blog.  Luckily for me, today was a day when I felt this need, AND I was in the reach of a computer.  My friend and I did ALL of our visiting teaching this week!  It feels good to have it all accomplished and to know that our sisters are well taken care of.  Visiting with one sister today made me realize that I'm still interested in getting my degree in nutrition!  I'm going to look at my options.  I wish so much that I had been smart and gotten all of my education out of the way early, so now I could be working.  BUT, I had to be difficult and different, so, I'm paying for it now.  But I appreciate education so much more now than I did when I was younger.  So I guess it all evens out.....

And guess what I got in the mail today....dun dun dun....

woo hoo!  A Sam's Club gift card for the promotion that they are putting on with General Mills and MyBlogSpark!  Yay!   I'm excited.  I love the color pink to begin with, so October, I am in HEAVEN with pink this pink that for breast cancer month!  Did I mention I LOVE pink?  Why yes, I think I may have.  So this month, even my food is going to be dressed up in pink to support breast cancer research and survivors!  Has anyone ever dealt with this issue before?  I, luckily, have not had to.  I do remember being very young and my mom having a "scare", but it turned out to be nothing bad.  thank goodness for that.  Hopefully I will never have breast cancer or my friends or family will also never be affected with it, but according to the most recent statistics, 

1 in every 8 women

will be affected at some point in their lives.  How scary is that!  good thing that General Mills, Sam's Club, and MyBlogSpark have partnered together to support research, and also care for those who can't afford it.  

For 5 years, General Mills has partnered with  the Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Foundation to bring  breast cancersupport to local communities, and this year  they are making their annual donation of $2 million  to the foundation to advance breast cancer research  and support education and community outreach projects. Purchase specially-marked General Mills products  like Cheerios and Fiber One 90 Calorie Brownies  at your local Sam´s Club and help decide  how half of that contribution will be donated by  voting at PinkTogether.com from now until April 14, 2012. General Mills´ donations will be divided  between two important Komen programs:  the Treatment and Assistance Program,  which assists women in securing care  they otherwise may not be able to afford,  and Prevention Research,  which helps unlock the keys to preventing breast cancer.  Voting results will be announced on Mother´s Day 2012. Pretty amazing that you get to choose, also!  I love it!

Guess what else, though.  Someone very lucky who reads my blog will also win a $25 gift card to Sam's Club, so you can buy your own pink boxes and drool over them!  You lucky ducks!  All you have to do is:

1) go to https://www.facebook.com/samsclub Sam's Club's Facebook page and "like" them, then come back to me and leave a comment telling me you liked them,

then,

2) go to http://www.facebook.com/pinktogether?sk=wall Pink Together's Facebook page and do the same thing!  Just leave me a comment when both of those are done.  Then you are entered!  Yay for easy!  I will draw a winner on October 1st (to celebrate the start of pink month!).  So you have until the end of this month to enter.  Good luck!

And if you have any stories you'd like to share, feel free :)

Thursday's are great!

Well, I haven't posted a new blog in a long time.  I get all these ideas all swirled up in my head that I want to blog about, but I usually forget them five minutes later!  Anyone else have that problem?

Time for another school year to start!  The boys are in kindergarten and second grade, and they both enjoy their teachers and their classmates.  They have a new principal at their school this year, which is exciting.  New principals usually bring big changes, which their school is in need of.

I had been planning on taking a Nurse Aid I course at the local community college, but missed a deadline for paperwork (grr, still mad about that one!), so I'm taking it as a sign God wants me to do something else right now, and trying to figure out what that something is.  I will defintiely start working SOMEwhere, even if it's just part-time.

Ironic, I was just typing about jobs, and as I was typing a second ago I got a call from "American Income Life Insurance" company, wanting me to go interview in Raleigh on Monday.  I said yes, but after reading all sorts of negative reviews online, I will be calling back and cancelling.  Plus I can't drive to Raleigh every day!  Crazy people.....

I've decided that I LOVE Pandora radio.  I listen to the Mercy River channel and the Boyce Avenue channel the most.  I love Mercy River!  They are LDS musicians and their songs are so pretty.  I put it on Pandora and the whole house just seems much more peaceful.  until hubby comes home and says "turn off the music!!!".  Grrr.  Buzzkill....lol.  The only thing I don't like is the fact that some old neighbors of ours in Mississippi used to have a dog named Pandora, and when I think of the word pandora, all I can hear is the woman next door yelling "Pandora!" in a heavy Russian-type accent.  SOOO annoying.  But I can get over it.  It adds such a pleasant soundtrack to my days.  And it actually makes me want to clean, which is AH-mazing.  Anything that makes me want to clean is AH-mazing, lol!

Hubby's mom just sent me a crazy video on Facebook that I will share here:

Crazy New York Weather

Scary huh!  This is from all the horrible flooding.  That waterfall would normally be a serene, gentle trickling waterfall, I think.  Yikes.

Well, I've got to get on with my chores, cleaning house and other horrible things :-/

Blech.  Have fun everyone!

P.S.-Let me know if you can't see the video, I don't know if it will show it to everyone since it's from Facebook.

Updates...

Wow!  Has it really been almost three months since I've posted?!  I guess life got in the way like it always does!  Since I've last posted....

• I graduated and recieved my certificate in phlebotomy (blood drawing) -yay me!
• LKS graduated from her program and recieved her degree - yay LKS!
•  We've had 4 visits from family
• My house got really messy (okay, it's always been messy, lol)



Lots more has happened, but I can't think of it all right now.  The kids and I just returned from a LONG, fun, LONG, exciting, did I mention LONG, weekend in Pennsylvania at Blue Knob State Park on Monday.  Me and my kids; Leah, Gene and Sarah; Matthew, Taya, and their kids; Dad and Kay; Gramma Baldwin; and Mom and Tim all went camping together.  Yup, two sets of divorced and remarried parents who hadn't seen eachother in oh.....eight years or so, and my Dad and Kay, and Gramma, had NEVER met Tim.  Considering that fact (yikes!), it was a really fun time and I'm so glad we went.  The kids all got a chance to hang out together, and mommy had a chance to relax and not worry about both boys 24-7.  Yes, there were many awkward moments, but isn't life all about those awkward moments? 

No??  Oh. 

Oh, well....lol!

So now that I have mountains and MOUNTAINS (there literally is a mountain of clothes right now in my laundry room!) of laundry to do, what did I decide to do instead?  fart around on the computer, yeah!  That's a good idea.  Maybe not.  I hear the laundry calling my name.  I think it's actually starting to creep out of the laundry room, slowly so I won't notice of course, and wind itself around my legs.  Ok, laundry, OK!  I'm COMING!  Sheesh, that laundry is impatient.  Alright, blogging can wait, back to real life. 

No fun.  But here's some fun pictures!  And oh yeah, I turned 29 again-hah!

Just To Warn You.....

....this will be a VERY WHINY post. I have had a crappy day, and I am going to whine about it. For those who dont care/don't want to hear about it, stop now!

Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's go. Bring on the whine.

Ok so I had clinicals at the certain local hospital this morning, and a certain person there made me feel certainly very mad.

Ok I'm going to stop right now and just say What The Hell. They are having some sort of hiring day here at the lovely neighborhood McDonalds. So you can imagine the kinds of people who are here. Or maybe you can't.....let me tell you....there are 3 "ladies" sitting in the booth in front of me, one of them eating French fries and telling their little 2 year old to "shut the f*** up".
Across the aisle from them is a guy who is wearing a red t shirt that looks like my youngest took a pair of scissors to it, and is obviously high on SOMEthing.
The poor old people who are always sitting drinking their coffee look appalled at all that is going on. I just have to laugh and shake my head. And NOW it's time to leave, I've had just about all I can take, and the oldest's bus should be at the babysitters by now.

Reflecting.....

http://www.pentagonchannel.mil/?pid=3xoYP_53X3dom11kqRn_gfAfIjHtxTUh

What a sad time for the 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), of Fort Campbell, Ky.  They have lost six soldiers in the last week.

http://www.defense.gov/releases/

I am praying for all the families involved, and all the families who still have loved ones in that area.  What a scary thing to know that your soldier is in that type of area.  I'm so glad my hubby is not there right now.

(image taken from Google)

On another note, I read something recently that made me stop and think.  It was something on Facebook (I believe) that someone had posted about how they had been complaining about the fact that their husband was gone all the time (I think they were in the Army).  Then after she had put her kids to bed one night, she sat down, looked around at her house, and saw what she REALLY had. 

Yes, her husband was gone a lot.  Yes, it was extremely hard most of the time.  But she had wonderful (free!) medical care for her and for her children.  She had the promise of her husband's job being secure, a safe comfortable place to live, and she had the incredible support system of other wives whose husbands were also deployed.  There are tons of single mothers who have the same challenges that military wives do, but they don't have that great support system.  It's still hard hearing your children say "I miss daddy...." and see the tears welling up in their eyes.  But I know her husband, as well as mine, does what they do so their family is secure.

Now I will be the FIRST to admit that I have not always looked very positively on the military way of life.  Even now, it depends on the day.  And I still have those days, like all military spouses do, when I think, "Why am I even doing this?  Why am I putting my family through this?  Look at what it's doing to my children, my marriage, my sanity, my LIFE." 

But gradually, over the last month or so, I've tried, REALLY tried, to compare my life right now to what it could be.  And you know what?  I've got it pretty good.  Thanks, honey :)  I love you!