Girl Meets World: 2013

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

As I sit here to type my “reflection blog” for my English 101 Class, I think of my struggles and success. I do think that it has gotten easier to just sit and write about things! I guess a blog is just your own private thoughts! I blogged about religion, money, my kids, my husband, my friends, and random other things! It got easier! When I first started blogging I would sit down and ponder what I was even going to write about, what one subject could I write 300 words about?! Then I would start writing. I would realize that my blog would be all over the place, I would title my blog alphabet and by the end of it, it was doing subtraction! That didn’t matter. This blog was about free writing, so if I got off on a tangent that took me around the state, then it didn’t matter because I was expressing myself through writing! I think it depends on what is on my mind, I noticed if I was really focused on one topic, I stayed pretty well on topic, but if it wasn’t a topic I was too passionate about I would ramble about other things! I don’t know if I can say that this helped me as a writer, in terms of better punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, or whatever else, but I definitely feel like it made typing my thoughts much easier! I would like to say that this class has helped me as a writer, but I don’t know that yet! I have struggled with the fact that it is now nearing the end of week 7 and I have yet to receive one piece of feedback on my writing. Practice makes perfect, and blogging is definitely practice of writing, which is wonderful; unless I have been doing it all wrong. If I have been doing it all wrong, that is not good because now I am set in my ways and have yet to have someone tell me that I am not doing something right! I didn’t like or dislike this assignment, I just didn’t know what to write about at first and the more I blogged, the more natural it became. I also did my extended learning opportunity and I enjoyed that, I love getting to know more about other people! I am concerned because so many blogs, only had 1 or 2 posts on it. I just like confirmation to know what I am doing is right, so until I am told otherwise, what I have been doing is right! Thanks for opening the blogging door. I have actually thought about making a blog on my youngest son’s health. I would love to be able to look back at when he was 3 and where we struggled so when he is 10 we can have such a huge testimony!
Word Count 480
7.17.13

My husband and I have been through a lot. We have had financial success and failure. Right now we are trying to overcome financial failure! My husband’s income is 50k(+) a year. So for 5 years I have been a stay at home mom and handled the finances. He use to always kids around and say “I make it, she spends it” which was true! You would think that amount of money would be sufficient for living, and it is, but not if you don’t know how to budget! We had a total of 7 credit cards! (WHAT WERE WE THINKING GETTING 7 CREDIT CARDS?!) My husband was not at all aware that on our Wal-Mart shopping trips I would just slide a credit card instead of our debit card from the bank! He would check the bank and see we were doing really well and we would frivolously spend money, nakato, shopping, mini-vacations, etc. Before I realized it I was putting gas, groceries, clothes, everything on credit cards and we were blowing the rest of my husband’s income! In May it came to a head where I had to sit down and budget and I finally realized all of our credit cards are maxed out and we are strapped really tight! We were talking to some close friends from church and they referred us to our head deacons! They came over on Memorial Day and helped us figure out a “Dave Ramsey” plan for our life! We are excited to say that right now we have paid off AND CLOSED 4 of our credit cards and only have about $5000 in debt remaining! I started working to contribute to paying off those credit cards, and if things go as planned, by June of next year we will have ALL DEBT paid off, and $15,000 sitting in the bank for savings! In 3 months of donating plasma, working, and praying we have our emergency fund established and feel confident and excited about our financial future! I recommend to any and everyone to read Dave Ramsey’s book. Find out about “Financial Peace University” because it established peace in our home and in our heart to know if something happened tomorrow any Brad lost his job, we would be covered!
Word Count 378
7.17.13

The world today is getting so technological! There are so many “techy devices”. Everyone that I know has a cell phone! Even my 5 year old has a cell phone! I am thankful for cell phones because my husband is the store manager at an AT&T Wireless store! I think the advancement in technology is crazy. I think about when I was in middle school and we had aim and bar phones! I have a few favorite things about my cell phone. I am on the Android bandwagon! I like the options you have available with it! On an Iphone you have one phone option, with android I had the HTC One X and Now I have the Samsung S3. ! My favorite apps are, Candy Crush Saga, Groupon, Facebook, and Chrome or Browser! I have spent way too many hours playing candy crush! I am on level 213. It makes me a little sick to think about all the time and effort I have spent playing that game! I could have been playing with my kids, studying or reading my bible! But that Game is so addicting. It also doesn’t help that you play with your Facebook friends, and I am a very competitive person! I really like Facebook because I was raised in Louisiana and it gives me the opportunity to stay in touch with friends and family there! It is in some ways better! I love chatting with my aunt on Facebook because it is at my convenience, but when I call her she is on the phone forever, and it is sometimes a little awkward! Since I live hours away from my family they also have the luxury of seeing pictures of my boys growing up, since we don’t make it home too often! The internet browser is just convenient; there are so many mobile sites. I can schedule Dr. Appointments, Pay Bills, Check bank account balances, Google phone numbers and everything else! All around cell phones are really cool and I can’t wait to see how things look in 10 years!
Word Count 346
7.17.13

I normally don’t get in political rants like this, but I wanted to express myself on my own blog. Please, take no offense to my random blabbering about something I know very little about! I didn’t closely follow the Travon Martin and George Zimmerman case! I remember when it happened that everybody was in an uproar because a “white guy” shot a “black kid”. I remember thinking, isn’t he Hispanic or Puertorican? I am not sure about his nationality, but he is not white! So, I don’t think it is fair to say the white guy shot the black kid. I get really tired of the race card! Either way, a MAN shot a KID! I don’t feel the race is relevant or the title “thug”, If he called himself a thug, who cares?! What matters is that a man shot a kid! Now, was it, self defense, was it premeditated? I guess the Jury determined it was self defense! I personally think that Travon Martin was targeted. Like I said, I don’t follow this too closely, but if I remember right, when the shooting first happened they said George Zimmerman had called 911 multiple times since he was on “Neighborhood watch” that night and they told George to leave him alone! Clearly he didn’t, which is what makes me believe he targeted him. He should have walked the other way, not confronted the kid! I think he antagonized Travon and Travon did “MMA style” go to town on him, I don’t think he ever felt threaten for his life, because he had a gun on him and he knew it! Travon, I doubt knew that he had a gun! I think the riots are just making the African American race look like they are “thugs” and I wish they could just stop being angry about their Great Great Grandparents being slaves, there is nothing anybody now can do because of something that happened then! I just want us to all to get along, like everyone is the same, equal, because we are!!!
Word Count 343
7.17.13

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

I have been so busy with everything I haven’t had a chance to clean or do laundry or even cook dinner! After the zoo and Jordan Valley Park, I came home to blog and ended up taking a nap! While I was asleep, my best friend showed up! My house was a mess and she helped me clean it! I know I have a true friend when she comes over and knows I have been tired and busy so she cleans my house! I haven’t even cleaned my pool or put chemicals in it, so she did that for me too! My husband is going to mow tomorrow and since I don’t have class like I normally have, we invited them over to grill! I have really missed them! I am excited because I have seen her every day since Sunday, which use to be our normal! Before I started working and school it was completely normal for us to be together every day! Unlike one of my friend’s heather, we were together every day and we would start arguing and bickering! But with Kristy, it isn’t like that. We are together all the time and things never get awkward or uncomfortable! We always get along! We have such different parenting styles, she is 10 years older than me and her youngest son is one year younger than my youngest! She is more laid back and just lets Jeremiah do his own thing; I don’t think it is just her age, we have another friend named Jodi who is 40 and her youngest son is 2 and she is very attentive to what he does and how he is behaving! Jeremiah is having some behavioral issues, but he is getting better! Time out really works for him! I just miss them all and I am so glad that I get to see them tomorrow night for dinner! We also haven’t had a chance to go to the store either, so along with laundry, essays, dishes, mowing, grocery shopping and everything else, we will be busy tomorrow!
Word Count 346
7.16.11

I think it is just really cool that the Springfield Zoo has a “free Zoo Day”! I think it gives the community something to do that is fun and not too expensive! We got there today; we had 10 kids with us! I had 2, my best friend had her 3, her niece and nephew, her oldest son’s friend and 2 kids she just started watching over the summer! Everybody seemed to get along pretty good. Oliver, my oldest and Katelyn, my best friends middle are so much like brother and sister. They antagonize each other! I know they love each other but the 2 of them can really get after it! I have never seen kids argue so much in my life! My kids are pretty easy to get along with! Oliver says he is going to marry Katelyn! We always laugh. I guess I do remember the days they said when a boy bothered you, that means he likes you! Oliver must really like Katelyn! He is always bothering her! After we left the zoo, we went to Jordan Valley Park. The kiddos played in the fountains! It was fun! There was also a group of kids there with special needs. Some in wheel chairs, some with Down syndrome. Some other mental disorders! I just watched the joy they have! They don’t know that they are different and really don’t seem to care! I did watch the innocence of kids. Some kids looked at them and laughed, some just ignored them, of course the proud moment when my boys walked up to a teenager with Down syndrome and sat next to him and played in the water with him! I had one experience where we went to Wal-Mart and there was a severely obese woman and my son asked me why she was so fat. I just explained to him that everyone is different. I hope they always have the outlook that it’s okay to be different and that just because some people don’t look the same or act the same doesn’t mean anything is “wrong” with them! Jesus just made us all different!
Word Count 357
11.16.13

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Brainstorming places- Journal 17

I have been brainstorming and I decided what I wanted to write my paper on. I wanted to write my paper on a place that is an actual place that has made a huge impact on my in my life growing up. It is called Camp Woodworth. It is the Louisiana Assembly of God Campground. I grew up there. I went there every single summer. When I was 6 I started going to kid’s camp. You leave on Monday morning bright and early and get back Friday evening around 5pm. There are so many cool things about this place. I know I could get other people’s stories and experiences from it. Unfortunately since this assignment is supposed to be a research paper, I don’t feel that I can have enough resources for it. I for some reason cannot find a website on it. The church I grew up in was called Broadmoor Assembly of God and now it is called Gateway Church, without the Assembly of God affiliation, so I am not even sure if they still attend that camp. I emailed my old children’s pastor who is currently the only pastor who is still there from when I was there and have yet to receive a response from him on where to get information on the camp at. I can picture it like it was yesterday. The smell, the songs, the laughter, the FROZEN PICKLE JUICE! God’s presence in the sanctuary is by far the strongest impact on my life. That was the first place I really got to experience the fullness of God and I wanted to go every year. It drastically helped me to be able to go to a place and be reminded of how I should live before a new school year started. It was fun and inspirational and I wish I could write a paper on this place, but a different place will have to do!
Word Count 322
7.11.13

I have a sister in law. Her name is Katey Stafford. She is wonderful. I miss her a lot. She is actually my husband’s ex step sister. When my husband’s mom and dad divorced, his mother married a man named Kenny who had 2 kids around Bradley’s age. Cody and Katey, I have never met Cody. I met Katey at the hospital. We found out Brad’s mom had stage 4 pancreatic cancer and she came to the hospital to see her ex step mom. Katey lost her mom when she was 16 of breast cancer. Trish, My mother in law treated her like she was her daughter and Katey loved Trish like she was her mom. When I first met Katey I couldn’t help but look at her leg. It was metal. She lost her leg in a car wreck when she was 23. I had never seen someone with such awful circumstances in her life with such a great attitude. Her favorite quote is “dream big”. She doesn’t let the obstacles of her life keep her down. She graduated beauty school and then became an instructor at Academy of Hair Design and that is when she was in her car wreck. After her wreck the school was not very accommodating to her new disability so she quit working there. She decided that she would become a nurse. Now she is going into her last clinical semester at Cox College of Nursing. It is so cool to see her follow her dreams. One day she is going to be a wonderful role model to people everywhere. She already is a wonderful role model to me. I think she would do great in a career for prosthesis where she can tell all of her patients who are going through new dramatic life changing catastrophes, I did it and succeeded and you will too. She is encoutaging and positive and I love her very muchWord Count 3237.11.13

So tomorrow is Friday July 12^th which also happens to be chick fil a’s dress like a cow day. We did that last year. One thing about me is that I am all about free stuff. Especially free food. Last year this was on my anniversary which was the 13^th of July. We got big black trash bags and cut a neck hole and an arm hole and got white pieces of paper and cut into really weird shapes and then we hot glued them to the trash bags. Hot gluing wasn’t a good idea. It worked, but I remember every time the hot glue gun would touch the trash bag it would burn a hole, I think I ended up just putting the hot glue on the paper, letting it cool then putting it on the trash bag. Anyway, we ended up going to chick fil a off of glenstone for lunch and the mall for dinner. The mall was much less crowded. And I did not mind dressing up like a cow at the mall, it was free food. Free GOOD food. So tonight I get off work at 7am and I am going to come home, sleep and then I am planning on going to chick fil a at the mall dressed like a cow to get some free food. Then, I will go and donate plasma, then I will probably come home and shower and tomorrow James River has a Women’s Rally I am really excited about going to. Then Saturday is my anniversary! This weekend I am so excited for, I just feel like I have so much work to do for school. School will be out in less than 2 weeks and I have no idea what to expect for my English Final. I just hope my grades are updated so I can get a realistic look at what my grade is in the class.

Word Count 322

7.11.13

My Mama- Journal 14

I have a mom and she is a little on the crazy side, in my opinion. I don’t really know how to explain or even understand her. I do feel if I try to express it on here, It may be freeing for me. My mom is going to be 50 this year and the best word I can use to describe her is “OLD CRAZY PARTY LADY”. My mom has been married 4 times. My dad she divorced when I was a baby and husband number two and three use to beat her all the time. Husband 2 was 10 years older than her, He was a butcher and worked at a place called Kroger. Husband 3 is now homosexual and he was 10 years younger than her. He was in a family plumbing business. I don’t remember too much of my childhood, I guess that is a good thing. I do remember that when my mom was between husbands we always lived with my grandma. I remember sleeping with my Grandma and always hearing she and my mom fight. My grandma use to tell my mom she had to go somewhere else if she was going to stumble in drunk at 3 am every night that it wasn’t good to wake everyone else up and that the kids didn’t need to see her like that. I do remember her always drinking and partying, when we didn’t live with my grandma, she was never home. Things never really changed, I guess they went from drinking to pills. After I turned 18 I moved back in with her. She ended up going “crazy” and drew disability for bi-polar. After she got on Medicaid her Dr.’s would give her all kinds of anxiety medicine and she would take them not like they were prescribed. She would take a month’s worth of pills in a week and be really “high” then for the rest of the month she would be okay. She did that last time she came to Springfield to see us, it was over a year ago. I hope for her own sake one day she grows up, but right now the 500 miles between us is just right.

Word Count 370

7.11.13

Ashes to Beauty – Journal 13

To me, I think it is crazy how much music can impact a person. Some songs shake me to my core. I listen to primarily contemporary Christian music and I find myself more encouraged on a daily basis when I am listening to it. I have a few favorite songs. One of my current favorites is “At the foot of the cross” but its not the hymn It is wonderful. The chorus says “I’ll trade these ashes in for beauty, I will wear forgiveness like a crown, coming to kiss the feet of mercy, I lay every burden down at the foot of the cross”. Hearing those words just gives me unspeakable freedom and joy. To know that I can lay down all of my sin and “crud” of life down and that I am still beautiful despite the things I have done. To know I can lay every burden down is so wonderful. I don’t know that I ever have really been able to. I feel like I finally was able to lay Tristan (my youngest son) down to God. With all of his medical things, I am able to have freedom of trusting God and knowing that I have absolutely NO CONTROL over what happens in that babies health. God is the only person who can control those circumstances around his diseases, diagnosis, and procedures. When he had brain surgery I just waited in the surgery waiting area. I will never be able to describe the feeling I had from the last time I saw him go back, to the very first time he saw me after surgery and recovery. It lasted from 11am-5pm. By far the longest 6 hours of my life. That was a burden on me and this song reminds me every time that I don’t have to be burdened.

Word count 309

7.11.13

Monday, July 8, 2013

Confused - Journal 12

So, I did my “This I believe” Essay that was originally due on Thursday and extended until Friday because of the 4^th of July holiday. I posted it. In my writing group, we have 6 people, but for the last assignment we only had 4 people post and for this assignment we only had 3 people post. Part of our assignment as well was to answer questions about the Essay by “posting to the essay thread”. I am the only person who responded the questions to the essay threads and the remainder of the assignment was due yesterday, with the assignment extension I guess it is technically due today. I am having a really hard time understanding all the assignments and what to do in them. If I am doing this right, then of the other people in my writing group, 3 are getting zeros for not turning in the assignment and 5 are getting a 0 because they didn’t do the “This I believe Essay – Workshop responses”. Then in the lesson 6 for this week we are suppose to turn in our “This I Believe Final Draft”. I wrote what I thought was a good paper, so how do I edit this with absolutely no feedback from anyone, especially the teacher? I don’t know how to edit my paper. The Writers Workbench had some good information, but I wrote this paper after reading that. I still don’t understand what is right and wrong with writing. Reading the “freewriting” by Peter Elbow and having us free write then also having us edit our own papers is so confusing because she is saying, just write, it’s okay that it’s not perfect then she says hey, edit your own paper and go through these readings on what makes a paper better? I am just feeling extremely confused and frustrated with this class.

7.8.13

Word Count 311

Anniversary - Journal 11

My anniversary is Saturday. I am so excited. This will be our 4^th anniversary. I am so blessed to have a man like him. I can’t help but talk about how wonderful he is. He is absolutely amazing. He takes my breath away. The bad thing is I can’t even say how or why or what he does. Just the way he looks at me or touches me. I have never felt so much security with a man, as I do with him. He makes me laugh when I want to cry. When I am crying he holds me in the perfect way. Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes he annoys the crap out of me. Like, I feel he personally still expects me to do all the house work since I started working and school. I know he tries, to help, but we aren’t getting anything done. Before I started, we talked about it. I asked him, how we were going to do everything, now with me working full time and school full time. He said he would help more, and I think he tries, but I am sleeping maybe 4-5 hours a day and to get everything taken care of, it’s going to require less sleep on his part too. I know THIS IS JUST A SEASON. It’s just the not wanting anybody to swing over because instead of doing the dishes for the last 2 days, I have been writing blogs and essays and memorizing the different tissue types of the body. I don’t have enough time in the day. Any spare time I do have to clean the house, I am wanting to use to play with my kids because. I love my husband with every part of my heart he is the reason I want to wake up in the morning, and despite his few flaws, he is perfect.

7.8.13

Word count 314

Grades - Journal 10

I am trying not to be so focused on my grades. I personally feel like the content that I am learning is more important than the grade itself. But grades are what control my future. I know that doesn’t make any sense. When I apply to nursing school for clinicals, they aren’t going to care if I can edit an essay, they are going to be concerned with what grade I got in the class. My Anatomy teacher said he would rather us have a broader knowledge of the material and a lower grade in the class then to know less and have a better grade. This was because he gives us broad topics and asks us specific details. He said the reason he does that is because he wants us to know a lot about the topics, not just the specific details he is asking for. I understand exactly where he is coming from. But Cox College of Nursing may not understand that. Grades are the most important thing and what control me getting in to Cox College. Nursing is a very competitive program and they only accept 5 from each outside school a semester, which means my GPA must be better than everyone else’s who is applying, or at least in the top 5. Right now I am confused and a little annoyed. We are in the 6^th week out of 8 and only have 3 grades posted in English. And one of those grades is a 0- I turned it in, but I still have a 0. I think the reason I received a 0, is because in the email I sent, I didn’t include the “W02-ENG-101” in the subject like it requested in the syllabus. I understand it would help her better organize the emails that way, but I have read a TON of materials for this class, so because I don’t remember EVERY SINGLE thing doesn’t mean my grade should suffer. Now, I am ff my soap box. #NEVERTAKINGSUMMERCLASSESAGAIN

7.8.13

Word Count 334

Television - Journal 9

I don’t watch too much TV. I mean, with work, school, kids, laundry and everything else I don’t really have time. But I am shocked by what I have seen lately. About the only time I see TV is when I am going to bed. Trust me, I don’t see much. Every time I lay down I am so exhausted that by the time I do lay down I am asleep within minutes. I did stumble across a preview for a show on ABC- It is called mistresses. The name of the show itself made me queasy. I am absolutely stunned that ABC is airing a show with such adult content. It’s obviously about women who have affairs. From what I have seen, its about sex only. I wish that the TV networks could leave the shows that are based on sex off of air. I know “sex sells”, but I absolutely hate the thought of this show. Having two young boys, sex being everywhere is not okay. Having things like this made to be normal just makes my job as a mother that much more difficult to go against the grain when teaching our boys about sex. I know they are only 5 and 3, but the time will come in 10 years and if shows like this are airing on the “local stations” in 10 years what will be airing on them, furthermore; what will be airing on premium television. I just feel like there are much more wholesome story lines that can be created. I hope this show flops, so that when I am watching my local 10pm news I don’t have to submit myself or my family to the advertisement of such filth. It goes against everything I stand for. It is disgusting and I am completely offended that local channels are airing shows with such sexual content.

7.8.13
Word count 312

Girl Meets World

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Reflection

Financial Advice - Journal 25

Cell Phones- Journal 24

Loves - Journal 23

TravZim- Journal 22

Back 2 Skool – Journal 21

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Grilling - Journal 20

Free Zoo Day- Journal 19

Baby Fever - Journal 18

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Brainstorming places- Journal 17

Katey – Journal 16

Moooo – Journal 15

My Mama- Journal 14

Ashes to Beauty – Journal 13

Monday, July 8, 2013

Confused - Journal 12

Anniversary - Journal 11

Grades - Journal 10

Television - Journal 9