Happy Thanksgiving and Random Thoughts

So every year this time I like to take a moment to reflect on what I'm thankful for from the past year. I think every year looks about the same, so this year I may give you some random thoughts also.

• So it may be crazy to say, but I'm thankful for my job. Even though I'm working 12 hour days I really am enjoying the people I'm working with and what I'm doing at this time in my life. Through this time I have learned a lot for myself. I have learned that stressing over the small stuff is not worth the stress. I have also learned that perfection is impossible and I can only do my best and that is going to have to be good enough. I heard myself apologizing today that I couldn't work more than 12 hours a day. Then I realized that was maybe the craziest thing I have ever said.
• I am always thankful for my family. This year I'm thankful for our addition McKenna Elaine and our growing Troy. They are both so much fun. Wish we lived closer together, but we cherish our time together since we don't see each other as often as we would like.
• I have some of the greatest friends a girl could ask for. I am really thankful that Tiffany and Ryan have moved back to KS. It has been great to be in close proximity. Really praying for a soon and easy arrival of the addition of baby Classen.
• I'm thankful for a roof over my head, but I may go crazy tonight if my neighbors bass doesn't stop pumping before I decide to go to bed. I may have to communicate through stomping on the floor again tonight. So random thought about my neighbors for the past month or so I have heard a baby crying in the middle of the night coming from their place. So here is the weird part of this story, I have never once seen a baby come in or out of the house. The girl that lives there has not been pregnant and neither of the cars have a car seat. The crying is not like the baby is not okay just a normal baby cry. I just think it is weird. I mean there is always someone home when I hear the baby so I guess no big deal. Just weird.
• I'm thankful for my desire and excitement to have healthier life. I never thought I would say this but I actual am enjoying exercising.
• So this blog has been taking me a really long time to write. I'm just not really focused. (random thought for you there).

Well that is all my brain can take at this moment. More later. I have 4 days off work so hopefully in a couple of days I will be able to have a complete thought.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Great Weekend

I had one of the best weekends I have had in quite sometime (I guess since KG weekend). I left work on Friday before the sun set. I can not tell you the last time I did that. I headed straight to Lawrence to hang with Tiffany. It was so good to spend time just relaxing, eating good food, watching a good movie and being with a great friend.

Saturday I went with the PEO ladies to the WWI Museum in KC at the Liberty Memorial. I know I have lived in KC my entire life, but I don't think I have ever actually been up to the Liberty Memorial. There is a lot to see in the museum pretty good history lesson. I then came home and started cleaning. When I say cleaning I mean true top to bottom cleaning of my house. I took 2 large trash bags from my upstairs alone. I scrubbed the bathtub. Organized my room and a little of the loft. Then I started on the living room. More trash was purged in the living room and cleaning. Then I crashed for the night.

Sunday I went to church and worship was great. I love my church and church family. I am so blessed to have them. Then back home to tackle the kitchen. I left the kitchen for a day to itself as I knew I had a ton of purging to complete there. I am embarrassed to admit that I have 3 trash bags of old, expired food that I'm throwing away. I reorganized my cupboards, including my tupperware. I had a lot of old mail that needed to be shredded. Did a little clean up in the laundry area. Then swept and mopped the kitchen floor.

It feels so great to be starting the week fresh and clean. Not sure how I let the place get in such disarray, but to have it back to a fresh start is so relieving. I really needed to do this as I'm trying to get so much of life back in order. I have heard more than one person say that your house is a reflection of your life. Well, my life was feeling really scattered and my house got that way too.

Looking forward to a week that I may not have to work a lot of OT as I have training for 3 days. I'm having some girlfriends over on Friday night for a little party. If you are in the area and want to come feel free. I am having a Tastefully Simple Consultant here, they sell food stuff. Yummy stuff. There will be beverages and food samples.

Have a great week.

What happens when you work too much?

These past few weeks I have been working over 50 hours a week including Saturdays. So here I am at 9:40 pm on Friday night really excited to just be home tomorrow. I really need to clean house, get caught up on my DVR and just take some me time. So instead of random thoughts I thought I would post about what happens when you work too much. So here goes nothing...

• You don't update your blog for over a month.
• You fall to the bottom of Tiff's Blog Roll.
• You have to decide what you really want to watch on the DVR cause all your shows stack up and you have to delete something before you have time to watch the shows.
• I have found myself staying up later than normal cause it takes time for me to wind down after I get home.
• Chloe is about to find a new mom. I don't spend time cuddling with her and cleaning the litter box is not a top priority.
• I forgot to eat dinner last night cause I was so focused on cooking chili for work today that I forgot to eat.
• I have to call someone on my drive home. Even though it is a short drive home I need something to keep me focused so I don't fall asleep on the way home.
• I have realized how important it is to get ready in the morning as fast a possible so I can lay in bed longer.
• The OT pay will be nice, but not sure what to do with it since I'm working so much.
• My patience is much thinner at work. So I sit at my desk with my Ipod in one ear and my phone headset on the other ear. I do this even when I'm not on the phone to block out all the sound around me.

Well I had a lot more things I was going to say, but I don't remember them. I'm exhausted and think I'm going to sleep.

So now that I'm awake and refreshed thought I would add more to my blog.

• I have not been in touch with friends and family like I normally am since I'm so out of it.
• I owe some of my good friends emails I will try and get to that today.
• I miss my normal schedule for the weekends of grocery shopping, relaxing and spending time with friends.
• I have not been able to focus on commitments I have made away from work such as some project at church.

Now I guess I should mention what is good about working so much:

• OT pay right before Christmas.
• Developing relationships with friends at work. I used to spend 8 hours a day with them but now it is more like 10 or 11.
• I haven't had as much lazy time at home to just sit on my rump and eat.
• I have been able to focus on my new lifestyle change and been successful at making a healthier life for myself.

Well, I now have my whole Saturday ahead of me. So we will see what happens.

Random Thoughts

Well time for some random thoughts. I haven't even been thinking of any to put on here so this could be the most random list I have ever posted. Read at your own risk.

• I love reading others blogs, but feel my life is so boring I have nothing to blog about. Hence the reason I don't update often.
• I hate it when I start laundry and then forget it is in the washer until I go and start another load. Then I have to rewash the load that is in the washer as I don't know how long it has been in there and it smells like mildew.
• Sometimes during the day when I'm sitting at my desk at work someone will walk by and the entire floor will vibrate underneath me. I get the same feeling I get when I'm sitting in my car on a bridge. I don't have a lot of major fears in life, but thinking the floor is going to collapse around me is one. I wonder if they will let me move my desk to the first floor?
• I ate a caramel apple today for the first time in years. I mean I have bought that caramel dip at the grocery store, but this was a real caramel apple. It was a party gift from the wedding I went to this weekend and it was on a stick with nuts. So yummy.
• I went to pull my trash can back up the drive way last week and somehow the rod holding the wheels was at a 90 degree angle. I am at a loss as to how this happened. I'm also wondering how do you get the trash guys to actually take the trash can? Do I have to put a sign on it like I do at work that says "Trash/Basura?"
• I got to "met" Richard Blais from Top Chef last week. Don't be jealous.
• So Halloween is not my fave holiday and this year I have a charity event that night. They tell me it is a Masquerade Ball. Does that mean I wear a nice dress with a little mask or a true costume. Really the person hosting it is my very good friend so I will ask her before the event.
• So I had this wedding to go to this weekend and I actually decided what to wear based on the shoes I wanted to wear. The wedding was at 1 and the reception at 6 so I knew they had to be comfortable.
• I'm loving that I have had my windows open so long that I don't remember how long it has been. I was even chilly when I went outside for lunch today.
• It makes me happy when you call a call center and actually get ahold of someone that is helpful and does what you need them to do and owns everything that you may have problems with.

That's all I got for now. Hope you enjoyed.

Reflecting

I know you all have been checking daily and sitting on the edges of your seats waiting for a blog post from me. Well, this may not be what you were looking for or expected from me. It will be kinda like a random thoughts, but a little different. I haven't been driving as much for work, so not as many random thoughts. Those of you close to me may want to grab you Kleenex if you are of the crying type (Sara that was for you)

As most of you know my grandpa died on August 15. You may also know this was my birthday also. So both of my grandfathers have passed away on my bday. I know have no living grandparents. Today I went with my dad to Chillicothe today for my grandpa's memorial service at The Baptist Home. As I was riding I began to think about what I could blog about and decided it would be a great place to reflect on the little things I remember and miss about my grandparents. If I were really up on things I would post pics also, but sorry that requires me to scan them in and then upload them.

Grandaddy

• I loved that 90% of the time I knew exactly where to find him right when I walked in their house. Sitting on the "porch" in the gorgeous green recliner. Then it was even better when the green recliner moved to the basement in our house. I would go and watch TV in the basement just so I could sit in that chair.
• Bread, butter and brown sugar sandwiches
• He would always ask at dinner "What did you learn today?" He didn't care how minor it was he just thought we needed to learn something everyday.
• Speaking of dinner he would never allow us to eat in our swimsuits. Some of are you are wondering why this would be an issue, well they had a pool in the back yard.
• Grandaddy cookies - enough said

Nannie

• Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cookies
• She sent care packages of cookies to me at college for the first 2 months before she passed away. Later we found a book that she kept a list of what she sent so she didn't send the same thing each time. Well except for the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cookies cause she knew I loved those.
• Whenever we would go to the mall with her she would take us to eat at In A Tub. For those of you that don't know In A Tub it is fast food mexican that is so greasy it is good. It was so good and bad for you at the same time.
• I went with her and some of her friends to Arizona when I was in high school. Some great memories came from that trip. We stayed in a very nice hotel with a stocked fridge. She told me to eat or drink anything from there. Little did I know at that age how much that stuff cost.
• The snack closet......enough said

Grandma

• Grandma always wore these great sweatshirts that only a sweet little grandma can get away with. They had all those great sayings about how wonderful being a grandma was. So cute. Some even had collars on them that I'm pretty sure she sewed on them
• She made the best ham sandwiches. She would cut the ham into little cubes and then put butter on the bread. They made you happy when you ate them.
• She was the queen of jello. She would make any flavor you may want. But the best was her layered jello. She would do whatever colors went with the holiday we were celebrating. Such as red, white and green for Christmas.
• Her lemonade was so yummy. Not sure how she did it, but I think it was the frozen concentrate and she didn't add enough water. It was so rich.
• Sourdough Bread....enough said

Grandpa

• He made me a storage box for all my architecture supplies for the time I was in studio. It made me proud to use it. My dad now has it in his basement, at least he did.
• If you ever needed a rubber band you just needed to go to him. He had hundreds of them stored on his gear shift and blinker in the truck.
• One quote I will always remember him saying, and I know this sounds horrible, but if you knew his sense of humor you would understand. He would always say "I'm deteriorating on schedule"
• He was one of the funniest people I knew and had a very dry sense of humor. I probably inherited this from him
• Oberkrom ears....enough said

So maybe this was more of a blog for me, but I hope you enjoy.

Changes Ahead

I have been holding off on a post as I was hoping to post some exciting news. First of all I am on vacation all next week. It is the best kind of vacation, I'm going no where. I'm going to get some stuff done around the house and relax. Sara and the kids are in town so I will spend some time with them. Also Tiffany and Ryan are getting moved in this week so I plan to spend some time with her.

The biggest change is what is happening after my vacation. I have a new applied for and received a new position at Farmers. I will start on August 3. It is back in the office I came from when I transferred to the field. It will be a little different than what I did before, but I won't bore you with the details. I'm excited for some change and to be working in an office and off of roofs. There are some perks of my current job I'm going to miss such as: my laptop, company car, GPS, company paid internet at home. I'm excited as some of my good friends are still in that office so I will get to see them more often. As I will be back in the office I will have a more consistent schedule so I will make sure I bring my lunch so more control on what I eat. Also I won't be so exhausted at the end of the day so I will not dread exercising. One of my good friends is going to be in my training class so I'm excited about that also.

Things are looking up for me. I hope they are for you also.

Love Long Weekends

Not sure how else to put it except that I love to have a long weekend and to have an extra day to do what I want. I have had a couple of those this past month. Last weekend I had Friday off to just do some things that needed to get done. This past weekend I went to St. Louis with my mom to see Sara, Eric, Troy and McKenna. Good times were had by all. We got there late on Thursday night. We went to the zoo on Friday which is always fun. Since the STL Zoo is free you don't feel like you have to see everything every time you go. Saturday we went out to breakfast and then celebrated the 4th with Sara's neighbors. Talk about a spectacular fireworks show. It was so great. We got up and came home this morning. Mom and I got about 45 mins away from their house then got a call that mom had left her computer at their house. So we turned around and met Eric halfway so we didn't have go all the way back. So needless to say it was bit longer drive, but no biggie. I'm now home and relaxing on the couch updating the blog (as if you didn't already know that)

Mom and I stopped for dinner at this Subway in the truck stop. Tiffany and I decided years ago on a road trip to OK that you can put a Subway in anywhere as they don't need a special looking building to make you know it is Subway. So this one was in the truck stop. When you walk in it was in the most random place in the gas station and looked as if they just set it up for the day. They only had a small display of chips and the soda fountain was no where to be seen, but found it anyway. They had about 3 tables with only a couple of chairs right near the counter. They were taken at the time. So we wandered around to find another place to sit. We found the TV Lounge and thought that we could do that, but once again one table and someone was sitting there and smoking. So our last resort was this random room that had 2 tables and 3 chairs. There was a large ashtray (when I say large it was the same size as my head) at one of the tables. So we sat at the other table. While we were sitting there I look up and the walls are covered in bright blue carpet. It was rather random. Wish I would have thought to take a picture while I was in there, but didn't. So that was our fun adventure on the way to STL.