Suck it up!

The title of my blog comes from advice that my Boss gave me when there are things at work that happen that I don't like or that I can do nothing about.....Suck it up!!!!

Yesterday started out fine, except for the fact that I was having a bad hair day and would have much rather curled up on the couch all day then came to work. Have you ever just had one of those days? Well I was having one of those days yesterday, and I was in the kitchen making some oatmeal for breakfast when one of my co-workers came in. I used to think she was a bit snobbish, but the truth is she is just quiet and withdrawn until you get to know her more. Yesterday I was wearing a pink shirt and in the kitchen she told me that pink is definitely my color...that it really brightens up my face. I told her that I was having one of those days and let her know that her compliment meant a lot to me. Then yesterday I find out at about 4:45pm that that very same co-worker that brightened my day was fired. I thought that my company was done with the getting rid of people and I heard from her Boss that there were still more people that are going to be let go. They say it was because of revenue and her not bringing enough money in. So on that one would assume that her position was not needed, right? Wrong! I come in today to find out that they replaced her with a guy from another team that had not been with the company very long. How does that make any sense? To me it doesn't. I don't think its fair. She had been going through a rough divorce and is out on her own in the first time in 15 years and she has 2 kids to , and now she has no job. I know that my company doesn't think of people's personal lives when they fire someone, but its still not fair.

Think Positive

So I keep talking about writing a blog when I am not bad about good things instead of just the things that have mad me mad this week. Well here goes.

The good that has come out of work this week is that I still will get another half day off work on a day of my choice for having to work on a day when everyone else is off. Also I got approved to start taking classes to get my CAPM certification. The company is paying for me to take the classes and take the test to get my certification. I am not a Project Manager YET, but I am one step down from it. The CAPM certification is a certification that my company wants all Project Managers to have so that will be good for me already to have it when a Project Manager position is open. The way I look at it is that the company would not be willing to pay for this for me if they didn't see me as a Project Manager in the future. Oh and when I had my review my Boss told me that I was wonderful and that I am a great employee so thats always good to hear. I do feel appreciated at work even if this week hasn't exactly turned out as I planned. Oh and I am definitely thankful that I do have a job especially with the way the economy is.

As far as my unexpected flat tire....I am glad that it was not something more costly and thankful that I do have a vehicle.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

It just keeps getting better......NOT!

So I arrived to work this morning with a flat tire....completely flat!!!! A couple of the guys from the office were nice enough to take off my flat tire and put my spare tire on. It was quite funny because at one point there were 3 guys standing around my car so it looked like it took 3 guys to change my tire. But this means that now out of my paycheck I have an unexpected expense.

So then my Boss is still preparing my review and she had brought up to her Boss about me getting my annual raise and her Boss told her that I don't qualify because I do not have enough reviews for the year. How is that my fault? I came to this team in May of this year and asked my previous Boss several times about giving me my first quarter review and I have yet to get it. My current boss had told me months ago not to worry about it that she would push my raise through without out that review. Well it looks like I got screwed because my old Boss did not give me the review that they were supposed to give me.

So in case everyone hasn't figured it out...........I still have the blues........

The blues

Does anyone else have the blues? I was going to title my blog Christmas blues, but its not Christmas that has got me down. My original work plan this week was to only work Monday and Tuesday, I was going to "work from home" on Christmas Eve, and then completely have Christmas Day and the day after off. I had plans to go to Dave & Busters on Christmas Eve because me and Trish still have gift cards left that still have Money on them. My family is coming over for dinner on Christmas and then the day after Christmas me and Trish were going to the festival of lights at the Zoo with Trish's sister in law and her friend. Well its funny how things can change in an instant. My bosses boss did not remember saying that me and my co-worker could work from home on Christmas Eve and he said that it is all a perception thing that someone from the team has to be here since my Boss already is taking it as a vacation day. So he said that both me and my co-worker have to be here on Christmas Eve and only 1 of us is allowed to leave early. My boss said that whoever doesn't leave early on Christmas Eve can leave early on New Year's Eve so my co-worker didn't care so I said I'm leaving early on Christmas Eve. The other thing is that my bosses boss told my boss that she needs to force us to use vacation time. So that means that I have to use 1/2 a day of vacation time and still be available by phone and email after I leave the office until 5:30pm on Christmas Eve. Makes total sense, right? Not! So then the other thing is that the whole office is supposed to be closed the day after Christmas and 1 of my customer's submitted a request for a job that will be an all day thing on Friday. I tried to get it switched to another day, but that didn't work out. So now I have to work all day on Friday and only get a half day off on Christmas Eve and still have to use vacation time for it so basically I totally get gipped out of 1 day of Holiday time. My boss said that she is going to talk to her boss about it again, but I told her not to worry about it because I didn't want to seem like a whiner...if he thinks that its fair that everyone else gets a vacation day on Friday and I have to work and I don't even get Christmas Eve off in return then whatever.........

The Weekend Before Christmas!

Wow this weekend has definitely been very eventful:

Friday night I had my nephew and my Mom over and Trish made us all dinner. My nephew stayed the night with me and he is definitely a lot to handle. He is 9 years old and has adhd and does not even like someone suggesting something he needs to do because he is a big boy and he can do it himself or so he told me. I survived through the adventures with my nephew, but ended up with a big headache that turned out to be from sinuses and not from my nephew like I presumed.

Saturday morning Sarah came over at about 11:30 and Sarah and me and Trish baked all day well it seemed like all day...lol. Sarah left at about 3:00pm and me and Trish kept baking until about 4:30. We made every kind of cookie you can think of, fudge, rice krispie treats, brownies, and potato candy. Oh and in case anyone else didn't know, potato candy is really made with potato....lol. Me and Trish had a great time getting to know Sarah better. Our table, counter, and fridge is filled with all kinds of goodies. Me and Trish are making up tins of goodies to give to our families for Christmas. We of course had to sample some for ourselves. We even brought Ray a tin of goodies on Sunday because we heard that he had to sample any baking...lol.

Saturday night I enjoyed the last night of the Nativity. I had invited my friend Melissa to come and bring her 3 kids to see the live nativity several times and she finally did bring them. Melissa's 9 year old Rebekah had asked me what this was all about and why they were there and before I could answer Rebekah her 5 year old sister Charity said, "That's Baby Jesus".

The church Christmas party and ornament exchange was tons of fun. All of the food was delicious, and the ornament exchange was a blast. Who would have thought that a plunger would have been a big hit....lol.

Sunday's message was great! Thanks Ray! The Praise Team did an awesome job! When I got home from church I took almost a 2 hour nap because I had a really bad sinus headache. At 4pm The Smith small group as well as Sarah, Dan, Isaac, Eli, Jen, Travis, and Corey went to sing Christmas carols at the Continental Manor in Blanchester. The message that we were coming was not relayed to the people that were working yesterday; therefore we stood in the middle of each hall and then in front and sang Christmas Carols. We also went into the rooms to hand each resident a homemade gift. My favorite was the resident named Jeremy. Jeremy had a special request and wanted us to sing Amazing Grace. We all seemed to falter a little when it came to singing the words to the 2nd verse, but my Mom remembered all of the words and kept us singing strong. Jeremy was a comedian and had all of us rolling on the floor laughing.....who knew that poop could be so funny.....LOL.

After we went to the nursing home I went home and worked on the scrap book that I am making my Mom for Christmas and Trish helped me wrap some Christmas presents. Thanks Trish!

Now I was hoping that I would only have 2 days of work this week and that I would get to "work from home" on Christmas Eve, but my Boss has Christmas Eve off so I may have to take care of some of her accounts. I am supposed to be off on Friday, but a customer just put a huge all day job request in for Friday. I am trying to get it switched to tomorrow so I am hoping that it will work out and that I will really have the day off on Friday.

Christmas Cheer

The Smith Small group all gathered at mine and Trish's place this past Sunday to make bookmarks and cards to bring to the Continental Manor nursing home in Blanchester. We plan to go there this coming Sunday after Church and sing Christmas Carols and bring our homemade gifts. We had lots of fun, and even Scott who claims he is not crafty joined in and tied some knots. Here are some pictures of our fun and crafts.

Are you guilty?

Is anyone else guilting of judging people that you have never met? Well last week me and Trish went to see Emerson Drive in concert. We met up with a bunch of our friends that we had met by going to Emerson Drive concerts, and there were probably 10 of us near the front of the stage. It was standing room only so very difficult to save anyone a spot. 9 out of the 10 of us had a meet and greet pass to get our picture with the band before the show. This posed as a dilemma because how was the 1 person left going to save a spot for all of us. I mentioned to a couple of my friends that we could ask the 2 ladies behind us if they would help save our spots and we all agreed that they looked way too snooty. Kelly had asked 3 guys that were standing beside us to help save our spots and they agreed but it would be extra helpful for the 2 "snooty" girls to help save our spots. As we were all filing out to go get in line for our meet and greet I decided that I was going to ask the "snooty" girls to help save our spots and to my surprise they were both very pleasant and agreed to do what they could to help save our spots. We had to go to the front of the place to meet with the bands road manager to get in line, and then he walked us back stage. We had to walk past the front of the stage where our spots were and I thought it was quite funny to see a large gap on the left in front of the stage where all of the nice people around us were helping to save our spots. When I got back to my spot the non snooty ladies asked me how it was meeting the band. I told them that it was wonderful and thanked them for helping to hold our spots. Later on while the concert was going on one of the girls proceeded to chit chat with me about the band.

The moral of the story is that we should not judge people. Sometimes we make assumptions about people and who knows they could be really great people that we don't get to know because we choose to judge. Try talking to them instead of judging them. What do you have to lose?

Who Cares?

I just read a post on someone's blog that I figured I must share with everyone.



Nobody Cares?
A church newsletter mentioned a man who visited eighteen different churches on successive Sundays. He was trying to find out what the churches were really like. He said, "I sat near the front. After the service, I walked slowly to the rear, then returned to the front and went back to the foyer using another aisle. I smiled and was neatly dressed. I asked one person to direct me to a specific place: a fellowship hall, pastor's study, etc. I remained for coffee if served. I used a scale to rate the reception I received.
I awarded points on the following basis:
10 for a smile from a worshiper
10 for a greeting from someone sitting nearby
100 for an exchange of names
200 for an invitation to have coffee
200 for an invitation to return
1000 for an introduction to another worshiper
2000 for an invitation to meet the pastor
On this scale, eleven of the eighteen churches earned fewer than 100 points.Five actually received less than 20.The conclusion: The doctrine may be biblical, the singing inspirational, the sermon uplifting, but when a visitor finds nobody who cares whether he's here, he is not likely to come back.
~Author unknown



What is everyone's thoughts on this? Have you ever been in a similar situation? I remember several years ago when I was looking for a church home I visited this one church maybe 4 or 5 times, because I figured I wouldn't know for sure if I am meant to be at that church on just the first visit. I always sat close to the back, and a couple of times I came by myself and a couple of times I brought my Mom with me. After several visits I did not know anyone's name and I had never talked to the Pastor.

Traveling Adventures

I was not planning on doing a Vacation tell all because knowing me it would be one really long blog so I am going to spread out my vacation experience in more than 1 blog. I am sure since most of you are linked to Trish's blog that you will hear about a lot of the same things, but I am sure that me and Trish might each tell the story from a different point of view..LOL.

We left for Vacation on Friday the 14th, our plan was leaving out of Indianapolis at 6:00pm and we made it to the airport in plenty of time. We boarded the plan 30 minutes before take off. I had the window seat which I really enjoyed. Many of you may know that I am or well was really really afraid of falling lets just say that was before this trip. Well I am still not completely cured, but I have a better outlook on it. While the plane was in the air me and God talked and I just let him have it all. If the plane was meant to fall from the sky then so be it, but I was trusting that God would take care of me and I felt so much better about the plane ride after that. That doesn't mean I still didn't freak out a little before take off and landing.

We landed in Phoenix, AZ for our layover at almost 8pm Arizona time. We were scheduled to take the same plane to California, but it wasn't going to leave for another 45 minutes so we got out to stretch our legs. When we came back from the restroom and getting something to drink at Starbucks we heard that our flight was delayed. We asked one of the employee's what was going on and they said that the brakes needed changed on the plane and that they were hoping to have it done soon because the Santa Ana, CA airport that we were flying into had a flying curfew and planes were not allowed in the air after 11pm California time. If our flight didn't leave in time then we were going to be stuck in Phoenix for the night. I was a little freaked out that the plane we were just on needed its brakes changed because if it was that bad to not even be able to make one more flight then what were they doing flying us to Phoenix on those brakes? They kept upping our estimated departure by 15 minutes every 15 minutes. The airport finally decided to get all of our luggage off the plane and put it on a new plane for us to take to California. We landed in California at 10:50pm California time...10 minutes before the flying curfew was in place.

We then went downstairs to get our luggage and pick up our rental car. When we got to the Hertz counter it had a sign that said "were closed" on it. At that point I will admit that I freak out ALOT! But level headed Trish got closer to the sign and noticed that the print under the closed sign said to go to the Hertz counter on the ground floor of the parking garage. We managed to get our rental car....lol. We were very tired and it was so difficult to understand the guy behind the counter. He was going over the terms & conditions and all he got out of his mouth was "if your car disappears" I told him that it will not disappear, and he said it happens. I guess disappears is another way of saying stolen. We chose the economy class car and were very pleased with our Mazda 3 rental car. On the way out of the garage with our rental car we saw this little matchbox looking rental car, and I told Trish that if we were not chatty and nice with the guy then we may have ended up with that car for our rental...lol

Okay that is all I am going to write about for now because this is getting to be longer than I expected so I will just say to be continued.........

My 2008 Bucket List

At the very end of 2007 me and Trish #2 wrote out a list of everything that we had wanted to accomplish in 2008. The start of the 30 days to live series at Center Pointe got me thinking that we did not have a single thing on our list of things to accomplish in 2008 that pertained to God or Church, or about leading people to Jesus, or about even attending church because at the end of 2007 me and Trish had not been to church in at least a year or more. How would things have been different if our list would have been different? I honestly don't know, but to be honest with everyone I am glad that things turned out the way that they did. Had our list included finding a Church then me and Trish may have ended up in separate churches because she grew up in a Nazarene church and I grew up in a Baptist church. Center Pointe feels like home...all of the people are amazing. When I attended church before Center Pointe that's all it was just attending church, but now I want to be a part of something wonderful and life changing. Before when I just attending church I would wake up some Sunday's and just not feel like going to church and I would make excuses and then more weeks would pass with me missing church. But now I actually want to go to church, headache or no sleep I'm there. Since I have started at Center Pointe something has changed in me at least. Well when me and Trish first started going we missed a couple of Sunday's because of pre arranged plans, one of them being us going up to our friends house in Columbus. Well last Saturday night me and Trish visited our friends up in Columbus and stayed the night, and instead of making excuses as to why we can't go to church Sunday we were both discussing the reasons why we CANT miss church Sunday. Therefore me and Trish got up early and hit the road at 7:45am on Sunday to make the drive from Columbus so that we did not miss church on Sunday. We sure were tired but it was definitely worth it.

Anyway the point to all this is that I am really glad that me and Trish did not put anything God or Church related on our 2008 list, because I really do not think that things would have turned out the way that they have if we had included it on our list. I didn't put God by my side before like I do now, and if I had then he would have been on my list. He will definitely be on my list from now on.

2008 has been a really great year for me! Me and Trish have made this year about things that we have never done before, such as trying new things and stepping out of our box and our comfort zone.

Oh and I also wanted to add about Ray's message from this past Sunday and all of his talk about riding the drop zone at King's Island. I have a huge fear of falling. I have ridden the drop zone twice, the first time was because Trish told me that her Mom rode it and I figured that if her Mom did it then it shouldn't be that bad. I didn't like it at all and I am always afraid on those rides that the ride is going to break and my feet are going to go smashing into the crowd. I know I know its a little crazy of me to think like that. Well me and Trish are going to Disneyland on vacation and there is this elevator ride that drops you straight down picks you up again and repeatedly drops you again. I told Trish that there was no way she was getting me on it, but from listening to Ray I think I am going to live a little and face my fears and just do it! Yes yes Trish you heard me correctly.

Pray About Everything

I just got a new CD and I really like one of the songs so I thought that I would share the lyrics with everyone. The CD is a country singer Luke Bryan. Oh and I must add that I got it for $3.20 on ebay, plus a couple bucks for shipping but still an awesome deal for a brand new CD. I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on the lyrics.

Time is tight and money's short
River's up and the weatherman
He's calling for another storm
Pressure's on, the margins thin
Gotta figure out a fix for this awful fix I'm in
Oh Mama, what am I gonna do
She said, "Child there's only one thing you can do"
Chorus:
Don't worry 'bout nothing
Let it go, see what tomorrow brings
Don't worry 'bout nothing
Pray about everything
Pray about everything

Love is blind, fate don't care
Lose your grip
And your balloons go sailing off into the air
Oh Mama, what am I gonna do
She said,"Child, there's only one thing you can do"

(Repeat Chorus)

Yeah take a walk, take a breath, oh give it all a rest
Take a cane pole to the fishing hole and catch a couple fish
And just like that toss 'em back and make a little wish

Don't worry 'bout nothing
Let it go, see what tomorrow brings
Don't worry 'bout it stress about it, fret about it
Don't worry 'bout nothing
Let it go, see what tomorrow brings
Don't worry 'bout nothing
Pray about everything
Yeah, pray about everything

Movie night at Center Pointe!!!!

Hey everyone! I am sure that you already saw Robin and Diana's blog about our movie night immediately following the youth spaghetti dinner next Sunday, but we all figured that if everyone in our small group wrote a blog announcing our movie night then chances are more people are going to see at least 1 person's blog and decide to come.
We decided to have our small group today right after Church at Larosa's. I was very disappointed that there was literally no one else in the restaurant to hear our excitement. We all were talking about what we would do if we had 30 days to live and the discussion of our own personal bucket lists came up; therefore we decided that we had to host a movie night at the church as soon as possible so that we all could watch The Bucket List movie since it fits in with the current series. I personally have never seen it which is surprising because I love movies and try to see all the new ones that seem good. The movie night is going to be immediately following the youth spaghetti dinner next Sunday the 9th. It will be a long day at Church, but I guarantee that everyone that comes will have an awesome time! The Smith small group will be providing snacks such as chips and soft drinks. I hope that everyone plans to come! Bring a friend or 10!

HOW RUDE!!!!

Diana, Holly, and I went to lunch today at Max & Ermas. Our jobs are very demanding so we do not get the luxury of not bringing work to lunch with us, but we still like to get out of the office every now and again for lunch. Well at one point I think that me, Diana, and Holly were all on our cell phones dealing with work and I have no doubt that we may have gotten a little loud. Diana had a technician on the phone that she could barely hear so she said a little louder, "Can you hear me?" Well at that very moment another restaurant patron who was seated 2 booths behind us with his girlfriend turned around and said very loudly, "YES THEY CAN HEAR YOU, I CAN HEAR YOU, AND THE WHOLE RESTAURANT CAN HEAR YOU. YOU ARE BEING VERY LOUD AND RUDE AND ARE BOTHERING EVERYONE IN THIS RESTAURANT. YOU SHOULD NOT BRING WORK TO A RESTAURANT. RESTAURANTS ARE FOR PEOPLE TO EAT AND ENJOY." I proceedeed to apologize and told him that I didn't realize that we were being too loud and the rude guy proceeded to chew out all 3 of us. He told us that we should stay at the office instead of taking work to lunch because we should not be conducting business at a restaurant. At this point I was pretty upset. The guy said some other rude things that I can't remember and Diana said, "That was very rude of you, some of us don't have the luxury of not bringing work to lunch with us"
I could not believe that this guy talked to us the way that he did. We tried to finish the rest of our meal, but at this point all 3 of us were ticked off. The guy's girlfriend was shooting Holly some pretty dirty looks whenever she would get too loud on a phone call after that. There are seriously better ways to handle a situation like that. If he would have politely told us that we are being too loud then that would have been different, but he didn't. He was really rude. I have seen lots of people with lap tops out and on cell phones when I go out to lunch. What would make someone act so rudely to perfect strangers? I wonder if one of the guys from the office had joined us for lunch if that guy would have still been rude like that? When we were getting ready to leave Diana and Holly wanted to walk the other way out of the restaurant so that we didn't pass their table, and I told them that we were all 3 going to walk right by them on our way out. We all ignored them, except for Diana who said, "Have a nice night" but the guy said something about us shouting out clients phone numbers and that people could write the number down and call our clients. First of all we didn't give out any client phone numbers while on lunch, and secondly if we did what is he going to do tell our client that we were being too loud and that we took our work to lunch?

Has anyone ever been in a situation like this or similar to this? How did you handle it? What did you say?

Reminder: Jewelry Party This Sunday at 2:00pm

I am posting this as a reminder to all of the ladies. Me and Trish are having a Premier Jewelry Party at 2:00pm this Sunday the 26th at the Church. Everyone is invited so please come. We made it at 2:00pm so that everyone has time to go get lunch and come back. There will however be snacks and refreshments at the jewelry party. Oh and for those of you that have kids please don't hesitate to bring them with you to the party. Robin and Erin will be looking after all of the kids while the adults try on jewelry. I'm sure that everyone saw the flyers at church, but I just wanted to post this blog as a reminder for everyone to make plans to come. Mine and Trish's Family and friends will be there as well so don't hesitate to invite them to come back and visit Center Pointe =).

Wowy Wow!!!!!!

Okay so its only 26 days left until me and Trish leave for California, and it just keeps getting better and better. As you read in my other blog I was worried about money, but Trish made me realize that we did not spend a lot of money out of our regular paycheck earnings on our trip. Over $200 was money we got off of selling some of our unwanted stuff at a yard sale. Some of the money was from selling stuff on Ebay, and the rest of the money was from mine and Trish's bonus money that we get quarterly at work. So we did good! =) Oh but the reason for my blog is mine and Trish's internet surfing adventure. We both absolutely love game shows, and decided to look on the internet to see about getting tickets to watch one of the game shows while we were in California and well we found great stuff! We are going to watch a live taping of Wheel of Fortune while in California (free tickets...yay!) We also have tickets for the Price is Right! We are so going to try to get on the Price is Right!!!!! (Oh those were free tickets too!!!!) We just have to wait in line for a really long time to try to get in the audience and then hope that one of or both of our names get called to be on the show!!! I so can't wait! Wish us luck!!!!

This one is for Scott and anyone else who is not voting for Obama!

I got this in an email today and decided to pass it along!

One sunny day in 2009, an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue , where he'd been sitting on a park bench.

He spoke to the Marine standing guard and said, 'I
would like to go in and meet with President Barack
Obama.'

The Marine replied, 'Sir, Mr. Obama is not President and he doesn't live here.'

The old man said, 'Okay,' and walked away. The
following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, 'I would like to go in and meet with President Barack Obama'.

The Marine again told the man, 'Sir, as I said
yesterday, Mr. Obama is not President and doesn't live here.' The man thanked him and again walked away.

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same Marine, saying 'I would like to go in and meet with President Barack Obama'

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, 'Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Obama.

I've told you already several times that Mr. Obama is not the President and doesn't live here. Don't you
understand?'

The old man answered, 'Oh, I understand you fine. I
just love hearing your answer.'

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said,
'See you tomorrow, sir.'

Can we all say AMEN!!

Customer Satisfaction

So today started out great, me and Trish got that wonderful Trip next month to California booked for a great price. Well then something made me start worrying about the normal thing that people worry about....money! I have lots of bills that need paid, that I am trying to pay, but they are just so overwhelming. Did I make the right decision by scheduling this vacation when I am so in debt? I really can't answer that question. Bills still got paid and are still getting paid, its just that at times it seems so overwhelming and I was feeling pretty down about it today. Well then I got an email from the head honcho owner of the company I work for, he forwarded me an online satisfaction survey from one of my customers and copied my Boss on the email as well. It kind of made my day that one of my customer's would take time out of their day to let someone know that I am doing a good job. I am going to copy and paste what my customer said:

"10/17/2008: Tim (?) was our technician for this location (Southwest Louisiana Education and Referral) and he did an excellent job of communicating and facilitating communication between us and the customer. He was also very knowledgeable concerning his scope of work!Plus, Missy Mahmoud is the greatest dispatcher! She always if VERY attentive to our needs."

My customer didn't even have to add anything about me because the question had nothing to do with me, but he decided to squeeze in a nice comment about me anyway and it made me feel appreciated. I enjoy my job and work hard to make my customer's happy so it was very nice to get this email.

Scatterbrained

Many of you may have read an earlier blog post of mine about someone attempting to break into my car in my apartment parking lot. Well this morning I went over to the dining room chair to pick up my Laptop bag with my Laptop in it as I do every morning when I am heading out the door for work. I starting freaking out because my laptop was not in the chair...the same place that I leave it every single night, so where could I have put it? This is my work Laptop, not mine and has all of my work stuff on it so I am freaking out. Then a thought crosses my mind that I must have left it in my car last night...and that makes me freak out even more because my first thought is that the theives would for sure find a way to get into my car when they see a Laptop bag in plain view. I hurried out to my car and to my surprise my Laptop was safe and sound in my car and no one had broken into my car to take it. I sure am thankful that it wasn't stolen.

Wow time certainly does fly........

Last night I got a Myspace friend request for my 10 year high school reunion which is coming up right around the corner in May of next year. This makes me sad. Where did the time go?

Small Group Last Night

Last night at Small Group at the Smith house was definitely a lot of fun last night. Even though the Simpson/Smith groups are breaking off, we will all still have the memory of a fun filled last night of everyone together. We of course had our fellowship time, but afterwards there was lots of sharing stories and laughter together. Some shared a little bit too much information about past injuries for the squemish ones...LOL. It was a great time and if you were not there then you definitely missed out. It was definitely good for everyone to be laughing and bonding like everyone was. Some shared stories about loved ones and that definitely meant a lot. I learned things about each and every person that was there last night.

I am definitely going to miss the size of the Simpson/Smith "small group" but I definitely feel that it is a blessing that the group grew large enough to get the opportunity to break into 2 groups.

Are thieves that don't take anything really thieves? YES!

Okay so it has been a very strange week so far. On Wednesday I was getting in my car leaving work, when I realized there were strange dents above my door seal like something had tried to break into my car. I was freaked out and showed the marks to some guy that I work with and he confirmed my suspisions that someone had tried to break into my car. It was obvious that they did not actually get into my car because nothing was missing. I determined that this did not happen at work, because I always leave my doors unlocked at work because there are so many people around that it would be impossible for someone to successfully steal anything. It had to have happened the night before at my apartment complex. That freaks me out because I live in a nice area in Milford and you wouldnt think that too much crime goes on there. I went home and there was a couple of packages that I had been waiting on outside of my apartment door. Someone had opened one of the packages to take a peak. Nothing was stolen, but the point is that they messed with my mail and invaded my privacy. The funny thing is that this is the 3rd time in the year that we have lived there that someone has opened a package that I received and left it there without taking anything. I guess they are seeing if it is good enough to steal, and when they decide it is not they leave it at my door. How nice of the thieves, right? I get a long with all of the neighbors that I talk to so I'm not sure who could be doing this. I talked to my apartment manager and she told me to file a police report. The police officer came to my apartment to make the report. He said that someone definitely tried to get into my car. I joked that they obviously were not professionals since they put 6 little dents above the driver door and 1 on the passenger side. I also talked to him about someone opening my packages, and told him to resolve that that I would tell the Post Office not to deliver packages that I would pick any packages up at the post office. Our neighbor Bob who lives 2 floors above us and happens to work at the post office was outside at the time the cop was there and he told me that he would have them give any packages of ours to him and he would bring them to us when he came home from work. That was very nice of him. Oh and Bob has a really nice car and he said that someone tried to take his wheels before and he now has wheel locks on them. Apparently thieves target my apartment complex to steal cars because the parking lot is dimly lit.
So to answer the question in my blog title....Are thieves that don't take anything really thieves? The answer is definitely yes. Whoever they are invaded my privacy and made me not feel secure in the place that should feel like home. I don't want to move because of these issues, because things like this could happen anywhere. I also had one question that I cannot figure out the answer to. What would they want with my old car that had nothing of value in it? Someone told me that they were probably trying to steal the car and were looking for one without an alarm. If that was the case it is not like the car is worth much.
Oh and I was telling my boss Lyn about someone trying to break into my car and that the car is not worth much, and she told me to put a sign on it that reads...."Attention car thieves....the keys are in the ignition for you this time."

It has been a strange few days....

The past few days have definitely been strange. On Sunday when me and Trish were on our way to Church I got pulled over my a Cop. I'm freaking out because by the time I pulled the car to the side of the road I couldn't remember if I was going over the speed limit at all. I didn't think that I was but being pulled over definitely puts doubt into ones head. The Cop got out and was looking at the back of the passenger side of the car, meanwhile I am fumbling trying to find my insurance card and driver's license. I was even more freaked out that the Cop was looking at my car. The Cop came to my window, and the first thing I said was, "What's wrong?" The Cop said, "Sorry, wrong car" and I preceded the to tell the Cop that he about gave me a heart attack. I assume that they were looking for a car that matched my car's description but maybe with damage on the passenger side.
After church on Sunday me and Trish went to the grocery store. (Thank God that we only got a few things to last us for the week) We about got blown away by the wind going into Kroger's. When we got home the wind was even worse. One of our neighbors told us that she heard a loud crack coming from the wooded area, and I could see the trees swaying in the wind so I didn't park close to the swaying trees. We get inside our apartment with the groceries only to find out that we have no power. At that point I had no idea about the damage that these strong winds had caused. We opened a window on 1 side of the apartment and then 1 on the other, but the wind was blowing things around in our apartment so we had to close 1 of the windows. Our psycho cat stood up in the window until a huge gust of wind came by and then she would run for cover. She was scared to death. It is crazy how much we come to rely on power and technology. Since there was nothing else to do I actually took a nap, and managed to get over an hour of sleep with the Cat running over me everytime a huge gust of windows came by the window. I kept waking up too because I was sure that the tree was going to fall, and I even saw it snap. (it still has not fallen though)
Me and Trish still went to Small group at Dan and Sarah's house. Trish was supposed to bring pop, but we arrived with only Mountain Dew because she already had that and all of the stores were closed so we couldnt get anything else. There was enough light coming through the window, but Dan needed a candle to be able to read his bible. We all enjoyed cake for Dave's birthday.
I heard from a friend that over 600,000 people are without power and that it will be 3-5 days before it came back on. Me and Trish drove around looking for food after Small Group. We managed to find a Larosa's with power, but the wait was over an hour. They were out of sausage, and fountain Coke, but the food we ate was still delicious. On the way home we looked for an open gas station to get ice so that we could salvage some of the food in the fridge. The gas station that we found said that they have only had power for an hour and they were already almost out of ice. We bought 2 bags, and there were only 2 bags left after that. We came back home to still no power of course.
At this point I heard that 90% of Duke Energy's customers were without power. I woke up to still get ready for work, because I was not sure if they had power. I live in an apartment, but thankfully we have our own water heater and there was enough hot water for me and Trish to both get a shower. Trish came back home while I was getting ready for work because her work didn't have any power so she didn't have to work yesterday. But when I got into work they had power so I had to work all day.
When I got home from work on Monday I had power. I was so thankful, because I know that there is still over 500,000 people without power. They are saying on the news that gas stations are selling out of gas, ice, and batteries.
I talked to my friend Melissa in Sharonville Monday night who was still without power. She heard from someone that there is somewhere on the internet that you can go to find out when Duke's estimates that power will be on in certain areas. How do they expect people with no power to look that information up? I tried to find it for her but could not find it.
I am so thankful that I have power, and I hope and pray that everyone else's is restored real soon.

Trish #2's Blog

Hey all I just wanted to post a note here for anyone that reads my blog. Trish #2 has now created a blog as well so please go check it out.


http://www.trishnumbertwo.blogspot.com/

My Mom

I am going to start this story way back a long time ago...LOL....when I was about 12 years old. Well let me start off first by saying that my Mom was raised Catholic, but after she married my father in a Catholic church she never stepped foot in a Catholic church again. Growing up I always went to a Baptist church, and I remember my Mom going some times too. I remember getting on the church bus and going to church every Sunday.

When I was about 12 years old me and My Mom were members of a Baptist church and were going every Sunday and Wednesday. Me and my Mom got Baptized around the same time at the church that we were going to. I remember one Sunday before Church on a day that I was wearing pants to church the preacher came up to my Mom who was standing beside me and said quietly to My Mom that now that we both are baptized that we might want to think about wearing a dress or skirt to Church. Let me add that I grew up poor and not having a lot of nice things; therefore it was not often that I got new clothes. I think I owned 1 maybe 2 skirts at that age. I was very upset by the Preacher's remarks, and my first thought was that God didn't care what I wore to church as long as I came to worship him. I also questioned what the Preacher said and thought, "Would God really want me to not go to Church because I don't have a nice dress or skirt to wear?" I know that the answer is no, but those are words that I will always remember and I think they have had a lasting impact on my Mother.

My Mom has not gone to Church in a really long time, and now that I have found an awesome Church I have been inviting her every chance that I get. Everytime she gives me some excuse like how she needs her hair cut, or she needs a nice dress to wear. I told my Mom over and over that God doesn't care what she wears, and even told her that there are more people at Center Pointe wearing pants, and shorts then there are wearing a skirt or dress. So then my Mom told me that she would like to get a new pair of pants and she hasn't had new shoes in a long time so she would like to get a new pair of shoes because she wanted to look nice to come to church with me. Last Weekend I invited her to Church once again and she rattled off her list of excuses, and I got kind of snippy with her and told her that there is always going to be an excuse if she keeps making excuses, and I reminded her once again that God doesn't care how new the pair of shoes she has on her feet are or if her hair was just cut.

My Mom did tell me that she would come to Church with me on high attendance Sunday this Sunday the 14th, and I certainly hope that she does.

After Church yesterday I picked my Mom up and me, My Mom, and Trish met Scott and Diana and their kids at Cici's Pizza for lunch. The first words out of Diana's mouth when she met my Mom was to me telling me that I should invite my Mom to Church next Sunday, and I told her that I already did. As we were leaving Cici's Pizza the last words out of Diana's mouth was to my Mom, and Diana said to her, "So we will see you next Sunday?" And my Mom said yes. We all know how Diana's....well we wont call it nagging...lets call it God persistantly working through Diana. So if My Mom doesn't come to Church Sunday then I am giving Diana her phone number and address...LOL.

I would appreciate it if everyone can add my Mom to their prayer list.

My Path

Over the past few years I have been "looking" for a Church home. I put the word looking in quotation marks because I really wasn't doing much looking but when asked about Church or someone asking me about what Church I was going to I would always respond with the fact that I need to find a Church home, but I really didn't do anything about finding a Church home. Trish invited me to church with her once and I went and liked the church, but there were so many people there and it just didn't feel like home. Melissa invited me to church with her before too, and I always intended to go but never got around to it.
God has always been a part of life, but I have been guilty about forgetting about his presence at times. I have let certain people take me away from God, and I don't want to be the kind of person that turns to God only when things are going bad in my life. I want God to be a part of my life through the good times and the bad.
So about a year ago things seemed to be going pretty well in my life. I moved into a new apartment, I had a great job with a couple of promotions already, but I was still missing God in my life. Those that are reading this know Diana Smith I am sure. Well in March of 2007 I assisted in getting Diana hired at the company that I work for. Diana and I had a little falling out from an incident that occurred during work hours, and we came to the determination that she just wasn't able to work for me. Well I moved on to another department within the same company and gradually me and Diana began talking again and I can say that we are definitely friends. I have no idea why I felt the need to include all of that I did in this paragraph to get to the point that I was trying to make. Diana knew that I wasn't going to Church and every chance she got she would invite me to Church with her. At the time that she started asking me to go with her I believe that she was still going to Dove. I never ended up going to Dove with Diana. Diana then started going to Center Pointe Church in Goshen, OH, and every chance she got she would tell me about it. I know Diana loved going to Dove, but when she started going to Center Pointe she just seemed extra excited about it. I think it was literally every time that I would talk to Diana that she would invite me to Center Pointe. I'm not sure if it was God speaking to me or me trying to shut Diana up so she wouldn't ask me to go anymore, but I finally visited Center Pointe Church with Diana. I invited my roommate and best friend Trish to join me. I absolutely loved it. The people were amazing and so inviting, and the music was awesome, and the message was perfect. Me and Trish were always always busy people always had something going on every day, and minute of the weekend including Sunday. After my first visit to Center Pointe I felt myself looking forward to my next visit. Diana called me up after we left Church and asked me how I liked it and asked me if I would be coming the next Sunday, and I told her that I would.
I still do not know every one's names at Center Pointe, but I am learning. I find myself becoming very disappointed when I have to miss Church because of some other obligation. I went to Church this past Sunday and had somewhere to be right after Church therefore I rushed right out, and from what I read in Pastor Ray's blog I missed God's presence after the service.
Pastor Ray's message has a way of speaking just to me every Sunday, and I'm sure that other's feel the same way. I feel myself at times so in tuned to his message that I feel like I should be sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for what he will say next.
I am definitely thankful that God worked through Diana to get me to visit Center Pointe.

Decorating Cakes

Those of you that don't know me very well do not know that my biggest hobby is decorating cakes. Some day I would love to open my own bakery. The pictures that I have posted with this blog are pictures of cakes that I have made in the past. I have been doing it just for fun, and really haven't made any money off of it but it gets very expensive. I like to do creative cakes that look like something and not boring flowers. With some of my birthday money I recently purchased an airbrush kit to airbrush colors and designs on cakes. I haven't taken it for a spin yet, but hopefully soon. Please leave me comments.

Updates

Many people have asked me if I have given up on blogging but it just seems like there are never enough hours in the day to even sit and have 5 minutes for myself let alone have time to type up a blog.
As far as my health I am doing pretty good now. I ended up going back to the hospital after the last blog I wrote and the Doctor changed my medicine and I started feeling better. I have an appointment on the 13th with a Cardiologists to have an EKG done to make sure that all of the inflammation and fluid build up around my heart is gone. I have been trying to take it easy per the doctor's orders.
I know that is not much of an update but that is all I have time for at the moment. I promise to write more later.

Okay so normally I don't write blogs, but I am kind of bored and its uncomfortable to lay down or sit still so I will try sitting in a chair for a few minutes. It doesn't hurt when I hold my breath, but I kind of have to breath...how about I explain what I am talking about.
Yesterday at work around 4:00 I started getting a slight uncomfortable pain in my chest, and it wasn't too bad. I figured it was just an air pocket or air bubble and that it would work it self out...wrong. Well around 6:00 when I got home from work it started getting gradually worse. I kept debating about going to the Hospital....partly because I don't like Doctors..and partly because if I went to the hospital then I knew that I would be there late and I would end up late for work or missing work today. It's crazy how I am in so much pain and almost in tears, but all I can think of is not missing work. My Boss is going on vacation tomorrow and I didn't want to over load her with my work load too if I had to call off. Well Trish took me to the hospital because she is an awesome friend. I am such a big baby too...everyone kept asking me on a scale of 1-10 where was my pain and my response usually was that I am a big baby and it probably doesn't hurt as bad as I think it does. Well they took me right back to get an EKG because I was having chest pains. It hurt so bad to breath so I kept holding my breath and then taking little short breaths, and the nurse told me that it wouldn't hurt as bad if I breathed normally...she lied...LOL. I told every doctor and nurse that I came in contact with that I was allergic to adhesives, and well 1 of the nurses put an IV thing in me to take like 6 vials of blood, and she started to put the sticky thing on there and I told her that I am allergic to adhesives, and that I didn't know specifically if I was allergic to the IV sticky thing or not. She didn't seem to be giving me any other options so I said that it would be okay if it is not that sticky. While I was waiting in the waiting room to get put in a room and the IV tape was itching and I tried to peel back some of it and it was extremely sticky and my arm was turning red. I asked a different nurse to look at it and she managed to take the stupid tape off and put on paper tape. Well the other nurse that put the sticky tape on my arm came over and asked what was wrong and the nurse told her that I was allergic to the tape, and the other nurse told her that I said that I was not allergic to that one. As soon as the other nurse walked away I told the nice nurse that I didn't say that and that what I said was that I didn't know if I was allergic to that specific one or not.

They then took me back to get X-rays of my chest. The Doctor said that the EKG and X-ray came back fine...well at this point my concern is what the heck is wrong with me? Well then the nurse gave me like 3 pain medicines and something for Nausea through the IV and told me that it would all kick in in about 5 minutes. Trish told me that 2 minutes later I was passed out.

Well then the doctor wanted to get a Cat Scan of my lungs to rule out Pleurisy (I have no idea if that's how it is spelled). Well I don't remember them rolling my bed over to have the Cat Scan done because I was kind of out of it. Well I remember the lady waking me up and making me move over to the Cat Scan bed. The nurse kept telling me to hold my hands over my head, well I kept dosing back off because of the medicine and the Nurse kept snapping at me to keep my arms up and she kept moving my arms up. I could tell that she was very aggravated with me, but I really didn't care...LOL
The doctor finally came in the room around 2:30am to give me the results, and by this point I was very groggy and feeling pretty good. The doctor said that I have something called Pericarditis. It is infection and inflammation of the sac that surrounds the heart, usually brought on by a virus of the Pericardial sac that surrounds the heart. The doctor sent me home with a prescription for Percocet and Naproxen. Percocet for the pain, and Naproxen to get rid of the inflammation. I have never heard of Pericarditis; therefore I really do not know how serious it is. I have no idea if it goes away and never comes back, or if it will come back and me needing to continue medication. I have a follow up visit with my normal physician on Monday so hopefully she will be able to answer all of my questions.
We got home after 3:00 in the morning and Trish had to be up at like 5:45 to get ready for work.
The doctor ordered me to rest and to be off work for 5 days....I am assuming that he means 5 consecutive days and not just Monday - Friday. I hated calling into work today because I know there was a lot to do and my Boss is on vacation starting tomorrow, and I hated to put my work load on her too. I am not going to be at work tomorrow either, because I am taking the doctors orders seriously and getting some rest. I even asked the Doctor if I was allowed to work from home, and he said sure if I wanted to see him back in the hospital next week. I don't like going to the Hospital so I am going to do my best to get rest and take my medicine.
We couldn't find a pharmacy open at 3:00 this morning, so I had to wait until today to get my prescription filled. I was kind of worried because Trish doesn't normally get off work until like 3:30pm, and I didn't know if I could wait that long for my medicine. I woke up shortly after 8 this morning and I still had pain in my chest and it hurt to breath. I tried getting a hold of my Mom so that she could fill my prescriptions and I couldn't a hold of her. I didn't want to go get the medicine myself because I still felt groggy and it exhausted me just to get up and walk to the other side of the room because of my chest hurting; therefore I didn't think that the greatest idea would be to drive my car. Trish called me at like 9:00 this morning to tell me that work was slow and that she was given the option of getting off at 12:00 and that she would be able to get my prescriptions filled. My Mom then finally called me back and her and my brother were going to come over to check on me. I asked my Mom to pick up my prescriptions so that Trish could come home and get some sleep since she we didn't get home until after 3 in the morning. Meanwhile Christy from work called me because she had heard that I had been to the hospital and didn't have my prescription filled from my Boss Lyn. Christy offered to go pick up my medicine for me. I was very touched that Christy offered to do that for me. I thanked her and told her that I should have my prescription filled soon.
I still have a pain in my chest and it hurts when I breath in deeply. I am due for some more medicine here in a few minutes so hopefully that will help to knock me on my butt so that I can get some sleep.
Wow for never blogging this seems to be a pretty long one. Thanks to anyone who was patient enough to read all of my ranting. Comments are definitely appreciated.

New to Blogging

Let me start off this blog by saying that this is the first actual blog that I have ever created so bear with me. There are a few things on my mind that I would like to write a blog about, but I don't think I am ready just yet. I would definitely like everyone's comments and suggestions on blogging in general. Blogging seems to be the latest trend so any help would be greatly appreciated.