Sunday, August 31, 2008

Do you want to win 10 books?

If so, then head over here to enter!

1. Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World By Vicky Myron , Bret Witter ISBN: 0446407410 $19.99 Audio book, eBook, large print also available

2. The Book of Calamities: Five Questions About Suffering and Its Meaning

By Peter Trachtenberg ISBN: 0316158798, $23.99 eBook also available

3. Say You’re One of Them By Uwem Akpan ISBN: 0316113786 $23.99 Audio Book, eBook available

4. Bo’s Lasting Lessons: The Legendary Coach Teaches the Timeless Fundamentals of Leadership By Bo Schembechler , John Bacon $13.99 ISBN: 044658200X Audio book, ebook also available

5. Knowing Right from Wrong: A Christian Guide to Conscience By Fr. Thomas D. Williams $19.99 ISBN: 0446582018 eBook also available

6. Titanic’s Last Secrets: The Further Adventures of Shadow Divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler By Brad Matsen $27.99 ISBN: 0446582050 Audio book, ebook also available

7. A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative By Roger von Oech (25th Anniversary) $16.99 ISBN: 0446404667

8. Ethics 101: What Every Leader Needs To Know By John Maxwell $9.95 ISBN: 0446578096 Audio book, Audio book, ebook also available

9. The Self-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in an Age of Self-Importance By Polly Young-Eisendrath $25.99 ISBN: 0316013110 Audio book, ebook also available

10. Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey By William Least Heat-Moon $27.99 ISBN: 0316110256 Audio book, ebook, large print also available

What my house looked like this morning

OK, turn your head to the side. I swear blogger is doing this!! Anyways, this is my room. With a bunch of daughters crap in it.
Still my room.
Our kitchen table.
The entryway.
And my son's room. Things are changing now. They are cleaning her carpet and once it dries all of her stuff goes back to her room!!!

The second color!

How's that look???
When we took the tape off the ceiling, parts of the ceiling came with it. Not just the paint, but the old drywall tape came off. I have no idea what we are going to do. Right now we are moving on and getting the house back in order. We will have to deal with this later. It did this all around the room.

The green took several coats. I think 4? USE TINTED PRIMER!!!!

Priming and the first color.

This shows more of the holes we had to patch.
Another picture that blogger rotated!! We started priming. NO MATTER what the guy at Home Depot tells you, get tinted primer. And if you have questions, call the # on the paint can. They know what they are talking about.
And here is the first color!! I covered pretty well. Only two coats.
Isn't is nice?? And we got the new fan put up. Oh, and the light covers!

Preparing to paint daughters room.

This is very annoying. For whatever reason, blogger rotated some of my pictures. And I can't drag them to be in order.
Well, the first picture is of her ceiling. See the 'cottage cheese' ceiling? I hate those!! It will be gone soon. Oh, and those lights? They will be gone too.

Here is a toy I picked up. It doesn't work that great. But, it does lessen some of the mess.
I'm doing some finishing touches.
That is one of her walls. That is how many fickin' holes were in her walls.
We put in recessed lighting.
Some of her crap in the hallway.
More of her crap in the entry way.
And more of her crap in my sons' room.

What her room looked like. Why did it rotate?????

Peace and Serenity.

I need me some of that!
Seriously, I have so much going on right now, and I've had a few little breakdowns along the way. I am closing my business, but figuring out how to give everyone's keys back is crazy! I don't even know how many keys I have, around 100 if I had to guess. But, that part of my life is almost over.

The painting of my daughters room is almost over. 3 weeks late. So, my house should be back to order by tomorrow. I never realized how a disorganized home could create such a bad feeling in a person. I told my kids that they HAD to keep the kitchen counters cleared off because it was the only bit of sanity I had in the house.

I feel I need to find my center, my balance. Does that make sense? I'm pretty sure I've heard something like that somewhere. How does one go about doing this?

Where can I find my calm?

I have a couple daily mediation type books. Maybe I should find the time to read them. I have "Daily walk with God", "Purpose Driven Life" ( i tried to read that, but didn't like it. Maybe I could try again, it was 5 years ago) and another one that I don't see on my shelf right now. I think it may be in the bedroom.

Right now, I think I'm going to get the kids started on chores, and get laundry sorted. My room is a mess since daughters stuff is all over it...........Maybe with my house back in order, I can feel like my life is somewhat in order.

Friday, August 29, 2008

More free books!!

Have you noticed this has turned into a book giveaway blog? Quit a change from the beginning of the year.

Anyways, head over here to enter!!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Who else does this??

Track your package

Date
Time
Location
Event Details

August 27, 2008
08:58:00 AM
COMMERCE CITY CO US
Arrival Scan

August 27, 2008
12:08:00 AM
SALT LAKE CITY UT US
Departure Scan

August 26, 2008
01:07:00 PM
SALT LAKE CITY UT US
Arrival Scan

August 26, 2008
01:18:00 AM
SPARKS NV US
Departure Scan

August 25, 2008
01:18:00 PM
SPARKS NV US
Shipment received by carrier

August 22, 2008
02:16:03 AM
US
Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit

I stalk amamzon when I know my package is on its way!!! I'm just too excited to get new books! They are in Colorado now!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Chickenpox

Let's discuss.

Do you remember when you were a kid? If you're friend had chickenpox and you had not yet had that pleasure, your parents were rushing you over to the chickenpox infected home. They WANTED you to get the chickenpox. Because the earlier you got them, the better.
When we were growing up, it wasn't a matter of if you would get them, it was a matter of when. So, let's just get it over with.

I went through about 12 years of my life thinking I wasn't going to get them. I had some immunity that other kids didn't. How lucky could I be. And hey, my mother never had them, so I wasn't too far off in this thinking. But, the week of July 4th, when I was 12 years old, I got them. And I got them bad. And my mom wouldn't take care of me because she didn't want them. They are deadly in older people, and the older you are when you get them, the worse they are. Which is why parents rushed their kids over to friends' houses to be infected.

Then around 12-15 years ago (I'm making that up, I have no idea how long ago), they came up with a vaccine for this horribly itchy, scar causing stuff. My daughter got the vaccine. And my son got it. And then sometime after that, the chickenpox vaccine people decided that another round was needed later on. Somehow my kids fell through the cracks on this second round.

So, my daughter gets this rash. I have no idea what it is, so I have DH take her to the Dr. this morning. He calls me back to say that daughter is being reported to the Health Department. WTF?!?!? All these thoughts are running through my head, what could it possibly be??

Chickenpox.

We're taking son to get his second dosage today. Too late for daughter. At 12 years old, just like her mother, she gets them. At least she doesn't have to miss out on the Fourth of July!!

And, she is quarantined. It's not like it used to be. She can't go anywhere. The school had to put up notices and send letters home to parents letting them know that their kids have been exposed to the horrible chickenpox.

My week ahead


Well, here is my week ahead post……….
Yesterday I went to work, Calculus class, and Business English. I have to tell you my thoughts about this Business English class.

I read the Syllabus online before going to class, and thinking “what a witch!” It was tough and very strict. When I got to class I was expecting an old woman whose been doing this since before I was born and thought the youth today were horrible and that she was the one to put them on their place.
But, what walked in was not an old woman. It was some Mario Lopez wannabe who looked 10 years younger than I am. Yes, I have a newbie teacher. And he is strict. And he probably doesn’t give a shit that I work full time and have two kids and a husband to take care of. (some teachers do care and I have shamelessly received empathy from them). I hate writing, I hate English. I am always second guessing everything I write. “did I say it correctly?, am I going to be made fun of because I wrote bare instead of bear? and on and on…………” I took English I in 1999 and II in 2002. It’s been awhile since I’ve brushed up on my grammar and whatnot. So, I’m probably not going to do well in Mr. Mario Lopez Wannabe’s Strict English Class.

I think that was my Monday.

Today I was to work all day. Then do homework tonight. Hopefully I will get it done so I have time to read some of Eat, Pray, Love. But, I think my daughter might have chicken pox. DH has her at the Dr. right now.

In my Marketing class we have a team project to do. About the 4 P’s of Marketing, Price, Place, Promotion, and Product. So, I will be reading a lot on those and coming up with questions for us to use for our interview of the VP of Marketing of Fidelity Bank.

Wednesday I have to work and have Calculus. I should have plenty of reading time after the kids are in bed. I hope my new book for the new book club arrives soon so that I can get started on it.

Thursday is work all day. Then daughter has a mandatory parent meeting at her new school. I don’t think I’ve talked about her new school………..I’ll do that soon.

Friday is work, Calculus Class (if anyone out there is a calc whiz, let me know!!) and family night. We will be getting pizza from our fave pizza place around the corner and playing games.

I’m really hoping DH is going to get daughters room finished this week. I don’t have time to deal with it, it was supposed to be done before school started.

I’m hoping this weekend to get caught up and maybe ahead on some of my class work.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Win a book contests

Here are some links of some give-aways I came across today.

TESTIMONY by Anita Shreve

and

A Summer Affair



Even if you don't want the book, you should still check out these sites!!

I won a book!!

I'm so excited to be getting a new book! Thanks Cheryl!

I will be receiving Mr. McFadyen's The Face of Death.

A review of my New Years goals.

Without looking at them, I would like the think that I have done fairly well. In January, I posted a list of goals, things I wanted to improve in, start doing, etc.... I tried to pick some that were reasonable.

Now, lets see how I'm doing.


1. Read more. I think I've done well with this one. I'm not sure how many books I've read, I guess I could start tracking that. But, I know I've tried several new authors and I have enjoyed them all.

2. Pay down debt. We have done great with this one!! And we continue to work on this one. It will be a little harder now that I have closed my business and that income is gone, but we will still stay on track.


3. Do more family oriented stuff. We've been spending more time playing games and stuff. We also came up with a fun and free activity that we have been doing on Sunday afternoons. We go to open houses. The kids love it! We started this because we wanted to see some of the other houses in our area and compare them to ours. We are doing several home improvements and want to make sure they are reasonable for our area. We also want to get an idea what we can list our house for when the time comes. So far things are looking good!

4. Try not to get pissy with DH on all the traveling he is going to be doing. He's not here to ask, but I think I have been better.

5. Meet more people. Yes, I have meet some new people.

6. Stop watching so much TV. TiVo makes this really hard.

7. Volunteer more. No, I still suck at this one.

8. Start going to church. Yes, we have been going once or twice a month. I'm even transferring my membership from my home church. That is huge for me.

The first book club book.

I think this was where I was originally going with the previous post, but obviously got sidetracked.

Here is our first book we will be reading! It looks like a very good read!
When I ordered this through Amazon, I was not really paying attention. Apparently I had some other items in my shopping cart. And when I thought I was just getting this one book, I bought some others that I was thinking about. In all, it was just under $100. Oops! Oh well, I will get to them eventually.

Here is the list that I bought:

Items not yet shipped:
Shipping estimate: August 28, 2008
  • 1 of: The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor, Revised Edition
    Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC
  • 1 of: My Heart Remembers
    Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC
  • 1 of: Water for Elephants: A Novel
    Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC
  • 1 of: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
    Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC


Items shipping soon:
Shipping estimate: August 28, 2008
  • 1 of: The Story of the World: Activity Book 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor, Third Edition
    Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC
  • 1 of: The Lace Reader: A Novel
    Sold by: Amazon.com, LLC
  • 1 of: Bitter is the New Black : Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass,Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unempl

I'm joining a IRL Bookclub!!

A good friend of mine is starting up a book club, and I'm joining in. I've never been part of a book club before and I'm really excited. I've tired, but always chickened out because of my shyness. It's really hard for me to meet new people, I have problems carrying on conversations.

Of course my friends look at me and say "Shy? You? NO way, the farthest from shy" I guess they don't remember when we first met and I didn't say anything. Now, once I get to know someone I really don't shut-up. I've been working hard on this shyness thing.

I think it all started when I joined the meetup group for Girls' Night. I remember that first night like it was yesterday. I almost didn't go.

Ok, I guess I'm not on the book club thing, but I will get back to it, because I think this all ties in.

So, my first girls' night out. It was at Crown Uptown. A musical. Footloose. I love Footloose, so I was excited. I had been living here for a few years and didn't really have any friends. I was so nervous. There was a message on the meetup board about attire. I had been to Crown Uptown and knew you didn't really need to dress up............but I wasn't about to post that, being a newbie and all. So, everyone else decided we needed to dress up. Now this is back when I was pet sitting full time, and I had gained some weight. So, I really didn't have much to wear, my wardrobe consisted of jeans and tee shirts, and a bunch of stuff that didn't fit. I found a skirt and jacket that fit, but felt completely stupid. I showed up and walked down to our table. There were other newbies...........I sat next to Cassie (she went shopping and bought a new wrap that was very pretty) I did my best to participate in conversation, but I know I was quiet. I remember Rebekah, Anna, Jen and Serena. There were others there, but I don't remember who.

This was on February 17, 2007. 1 1/2 years ago.

The show was great and afterwards some of us walked across the street to a dive bar. Here is where I felt embarrassed again. We put our purses in the middle of the table. Everyone had these cute LITTLE purses, and mine was big. Why would this embarrass me? I obviously have issues. Do you know what I did the next day? Yep, I bought two small purses to use on Girls' Night Out. Wow.

So, I remember the night I met those girls. I also remember the night I met the woman who cornered me and would not stop talking about breastfeeding. Breastfeeding. Her 2 year old. Yes, I said breastfeeding her 2 year old. He was almost 3, and she thought she might need to cut back. Cut back on breastfeeding her almost 3 year old. I don't remember her name, and I never saw her again. This was the St. Patricks day house party. It was a very successful party. Lot's of girls there. This was the night I met Autumn and Tammy. And made friends with Serena. There was drama that night, but I won't go into that now, maybe later. It's a funny story.

I remember my first conversation with Tammy. She brought the guacamole dip. I was staring at it, trying to decide if I should eat it. I'm a very picky eater. As I was staring at this dish, Tammy came up and said "It's Guacamole." She was looking at me like I was crazy. I am somewhat crazy, but I didn't want her to know this. So, I ate it. And OMG, it was good!!! It's one of my favorite appetizers now. Thank you Tammy! I don't know how I went through 30 years of my life without guac.

Ok, so those were my first two events, and 1 1/2 years later and I'm still going strong. I've made some great friends, and I've even had conversations on the phone!! Mostly with Amy, but still, I can do it. I hate it, but I can do it.

Does anyone else HATE talking on the phone?? I cringe when the damn thing rings.

Back to the book club. I'm really excited about this, and I hope to meet new people. I set that personal goal 1 1/2 years ago and I think I'm doing well. I want to continue to meet new people. I love the friends that I have made and want to make more.

Back to the book club again. I'm nervous, even though I will know most of the people there. I'm usually the loudmouth, the class clown maybe? Now that I'm comfortable around these people, I just say whatever comes to mind. Sometimes it comes out wrong, or too loud, or at the wrong time. But, they usually laugh. Or maybe they really want to run and hide. Which brings up a funny story from last night. It was Sarah's wedding. I missed the wedding because of class, but went to the reception. Remember how stressed I am?? Yeah. So, I had a little too much to drink and apparently was giving the DJ a hard time at the end of the night. So, the DJ asks (on the mic) "who invited her?" Not in a bad way, in a funny way. All my friends yell "the bride". As the bride is walking up the dance floor. So he says "you invited Her??" Sarah gives me a hug and says "OH, she's just drunk"
Ok, so as I type that it really isn't that funny. One of those 'you had to be there' moments.

Back to the book club again. Since I'm usually the funny one, do I have to be serious in a book club? What if I don't sound 'intelligent' enough?? What if they're like "Stephanie can you just shut-up for awhile?" What if I don't get the book read in time? What if I hate the book and everyone else loves it and I don't want to admit my true opinions in fear of them thinking "we don't want her again".
Yes, these are the things that I worry about. Kind of ironic since I started this post out with my shyness problem and not being able to talk to people. I obviously have issues.

Friday, August 22, 2008

My weekend will suck.

Ok, so classes started today. I got online this morning to print the syllabus's and OMG! I think I had a heart attack.
I have a weekend class, Marketing. It is on Friday 5-9 pm, Saturday 9-5, and Sunday 1-5 pm. It is three weekends. I just go my books the other day, hadn't even opened them.

I have an exam on Sunday over 8 chapters!!!

And I have a wedding to go to on Saturday. OMG.

Needless to say, I did not return to work after my Calculus class at noon.

I went home to read some Marketing chapters. I started Chapter 1 and fell asleep. Now I am blogging and class starts in 45 minutes.

Anyways, that is what I will be doing this weekend.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Weekly menus

I'm pretty good at doing this during the school year, but I completely fail in the summer. I just went through the house and thought I was making a menu through next week.
In my house, right now, we have stuff to make supper every weeknight, and breakfast, lunch and supper on the weekends until...................



September 14th!!

I will need to go buy 2 lbs of hamburger and one loaf of garlic bread, but that's it! WOW!!

Another book giveaway...

Wow, I never realized there were so many of these out there!

This is for Sweet Life. The review looks good!!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

My week ahead............


Ok, so today is Tuesday, and I came across this blog and it encouraged me to put my week down on paper (or in this day and age, the Internet) I've kind of done this on my own a few times, but never really stuck with it.......

Tuesday........I already took my daughter to her new school, first day. I took the morning off work because she only has a half day and I will be picking her up at 11:30. I have a lot of stuff to do during this little 'break' i have.
I drafted my 'closing my business' letter
I made labels to send said letter to all my clients
I am in the process of catching up on all the blogs I read.
I need to do payroll
I need to get a bank deposit ready and take it to the bank
I need to balance my checking account.
I need to make a 'weekly' menu for our house.
I did call the Dr. and make an appointment for a sports physical for my daughter, she decided to play volleyball.
I have some forms I need to fill out for both kids' schools.
Then I need to pick up my daughter, feed her, and take her to work with me. (she did a bunch of filing for me yesterday, very nice!)
After work, I need to go by Parker and buy her some uniforms.
Then we will come home, eat supper and I will continue to work on her room.
No reading for today

Wednesday.
A full day of work.
Working on daughters room
Hopefully have some time to read.
Finish stuff from Tuesday's list that I didn't get done because I was typing this.
Remember to have son take trash out.

Thursday.
A full day of work
Hopefully FINISH daughters room
Get ready for college classes that start tomorrow

Friday.
I have 3 pet sits today
A full day of work
Calculus class
Marketing class
DH will take kids to their dads for the weekend while I am in class

There we go!! Let's see if this works out!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Book give away (not mine)

I wanted to enter this contest and to do so, I have to blog the link.

It looks like a good one to expand my horizons with! I was telling DH last night how proud I am with the variety of things I have read this year. And the fact that I have enjoyed every single one! I feel an entry just on this topic coming soon, first I have to put up the drama with my daughters room.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

During my school break

I'm not a person to just do nothing. If I do nothing, I become really lazy and really just do nothing. So, to keep myself from becoming lazy during this little break before fall classes start, I decided it was time to paint another room. Keep in mind we are still working on the backyard, of which pictures are due.

But, I'm at work and can't post pictures now.

The room that we choose was my daughters room. It was great when we bought the house, but she has informed me that she is not a little girl anymore and needs to tween room. So, here we go.

Amanda over at Life and Times of a "New" New Yorker is having a book give away. It looks like a great book to expand my readying horizon with. She also suggested to me that I try The Last Summer (of You and Me). I will take her up on that suggestion.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Summer school is over, and I survived! But, I am not Super Woman.

I really expected to get A's in these classes. My first degree was easy. I'm not sure if it was the school, or the teachers, or what the deal was, but I got 2 B's and the rest were A's. That was my Criminal Justice degree. And most of them were 8 week classes. So, I went into this new degree expecting everything to be as simple as the last. It's is not. This summer kicked my ass.

I took a 4 week Microeconomics, a 4 week Macroeconomics, and an 8 week Managerial Accounting class. Did I mention they kicked my ass??

After a discussion with some friends last night, I think I realized why my new classes got B's. And why my ass was kicked. The Criminal Justice degree was a bull shit degree. A lot of paper writing and essays. I could write whatever and eventually touch on something that got me some credit.
An Accounting degree is not like that. I'm not going to be able to bull shit my way through it.

This was my schedule for June/July:
6 am, (sometimes earlier) get up and ready, go do any pet sits.
7 am Work at the Law Firm (except on Fridays, I had a test every Friday and stayed home to study)
9:30 am - go to Economics (every day of the week)
12 pm - do any pet sits and snarf some sort of food down
1 pm - back to the office
5 pm - any pet sits
6 pm - study/eat
7-10 pm on Monday and Wednesday Accounting class
other night, studying, writing papers, reading Wall Street Journal, taking online quizzes (2 per week), reading and making note cards so i would remember something.
10 pm - pet sits and then bed
(notice I did not mention kids. They were at their dad's for the summer)

I did this for 8 weeks. I had 2 serious breakdowns. I have decided that I am not superwoman and that something has to give. I will be closing my business soon. My business insurance is up in September, so that is looking like a good date. I cannot continue this way. And with the kids being here for school, life is going to give me as much studying time.

It's a hard decision to give up something that I started from scratch. This is MY business, something I accomplished, and now something I am giving up on. It's also something that controls my life. I work everyday, every weekend, starting at 6 am and ending at 10 pm, every holiday. It's stressful on my family when they want to go do something, but I can't because I can't take off. So, this is the part of my life that needs to go.

So, maybe fall semester will be a little more manageable without the business. Let's hope anyway.