New Morning, A New Day

Actually, I'm not playing hooky today.  I worked for a few hours before coming home.  I was going to see if I could work a little later (until I had to go to class tonight) but I wasn't feeling it, so I left when I was supposed to.  If I were to play hooky all day, it would be spent on Facebook, CafeMom, Twitter, and playing Shaiya. I love Words with Friends on Facebook.  It's a terrible addiction.  I keep my skills up once a week by playing Scrabble with my hubby and mother-in-law. I have a favorite group or two on CafeMom, one of them being the Journals group.  I used to frequent the Journals section way back when CafeMom first started, but the quality of those journals started going downhill.  Really dumb (in my opinion) journals were getting votes from other moms to be in the top ten journals.  Journals like, "I woke up and made some coffee and now I'm going to veg all day," were hitting #1 on a regular basis.  I met a lot of my CM fr...

I remember the first dance I did.  When I was younger and in a lower grade of elementary school, I had a jazz dance class after school at the AYA (don't ask me now what it stands for, but it was a center for kids to go to after school while their active duty parents were still at work on the base).  We were part of a huge recital.  One of our two numbers was to Michael Jackson's Thriller and the other one was something to do with a boardwalk (I don't think it was Bette Midler's Under the Boardwalk).  I remember having a great time. The next dance I remember doing and having a wonderful time was the first dance with my husband as a married couple.  Nearly every married woman remembers that!  I love slow-dancing and he said that he's not much of a dancer ("Let me lead.").  He said that he was embarrassed about dancing in front of all of the people there.  I told him to just pretend that no one was there and that it was just us.  I'm not sure ...

Aside from having an incredible family, I'm finally conquering college algebra.  My next, and final, math to conquer will be business calculus (I'm going for a business admin degree).  From there, I have two accounting classes, which should be fine. When I'm all done with school, I should have an Associate's in business admin AND criminal justice, thus expanding the fields I can work in.

... hand the lemons back and demand to see life's manager.

I'll tell you what, it's nothing like Date Night, lol! Dinner, movies, and a night's stay at the Candlewood Suites in town.  There, we can play DDO or Shaiya without worrying about using up all of our bandwith.  We're RPG geeks.  =D

It'd be pretty boring, actually, and not worth watching.

I work on Turkey Day but I'll be home after 3pm.  We have a small turkey since it will only be the four of us this year.  We're going to have stuffing, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, Dutch apple pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and probably a few more things. I actually try to work Turkey Day if I can.  With the retail jobs I've had in the past, employees have been compensated for their wages for working Turkey Day and any other federal holiday.  Working the day before, the day of, and the day after means that I'm getting the holiday compensation pay. My work day will start at 7am, which means I'm getting up at 5:30am to get ready and leave by 6:30.  I'll probably take some coffee with me as well as my water.  I'm going to need something to keep me awake tomorrow.

@AshleeTheShow: The best thing in life is finding someone who knows all your flaws, mistakes, & weaknesses, & still thinks you're completely amazing. Shared via TweetCaster

I'm not sure what to put here, actually.  I had a good childhood, but I can think of anything to put here.

I'd put out there that I was able to overcome my anxiety, but that's wrong.  I really didn't.  Every time I think about it, it gets worse. I've had terrible anxiety about losing Bella.  I know that every parent, typically, feels this way about their kids.  This anxiety stops me in my tracks and keeps me home with her on my days off from work.  I can't let her out of my sight.  If she's gone for even a split-second when we're out, I freak out.  My heart goes a thousand miles a minute.  I panic. I also have a terrible crowd anxiety.  This one has been within the last ten years.  I keep hoping that I'll get over it, but I can't.

This is like a continuation of the classic story of Alice and Wonderland.  It's been a few generations since the original Alice.  Instead of the Victorian Age, it's the Modern Age.. present-day, if you will. "Alice?  Alice, are you listening?" The girl awoke from her nightmare of nonsense and looked at her mother. "Hmmm?  I drifted off to sleep again." "Again?  Aren't you getting enough sleep at night?" "No, not really.  I keep getting these nightmares.  I haven't had them in years, it seems.  I'm not sure what's going on to bring them back." "Maybe we should go to the doctor," said her mother. "I'm up for anything at this point," replied Alice. They made the appointment with a psychiatrist, Dr. Conrad, for that afternoon.  After a few moments of speaking with Alice and her mother, Dr. Conrad decided to try some hypnotherapy. "All right, Alice.  Just listen to my voice and rel...

I think I wear a few hats as opposed to just one.  I care for my daughter when I'm home.  I teach her the good values that we have.  I nurture and love all the time.  I don't often take risks, though.  I associate risks with gambling and I don't gamble. More often than anything else, I'm always a tired one.

I don't think I'll share secrets, but I'll share a link about secrets. Post Secret

Five years ago today, my world changed. My mother and sister were in town (we were stationed in San Diego, CA at the time).  My sister, husband, and I were all active duty Navy and my mother drove into town from Denver, CO.  I was nine months pregnant and eight days overdue.  My mother got into town late morning on that Saturday.  We had pizza and then Mom went to the Navy Lodge for a bit. At roughly 5:30 that evening, my water broke.  After gathering my hospital stuff and trying to calm down (as well as keep track of the contractions), we hopped in my car (my husband, myself, and my mother-in-law) and drove to Naval Medical Center San Diego. Once we arrived, the doctors had me pee on a stick to make sure that it was my water that had broken and then they checked to see how dialated I was.  As it turns out, my baby had turned a 180 and was now breech.  I didn't want the doctors to risk hurting her so I told them I wanted a Cesarean.  "Are yo...

Whenever I'm faced with something I fear, I panic.  The "fight or flight" instinct kicks in and it usually goes with "flight."  This is just with me.  If it has anything to do with my kids, you bet your ass I'm choosing "fight."  Whether the child involved is my biological daughter or my bonus son, the "fight" instinct comes into play. You don't mess with my kids.  This is definitely something that every parent can attest to.

I get "me time" every now and again.  I usually spend it online, watching tv, or just hanging out in our bedroom.  It's not much, but I like it. At the moment, Bella and I are watching Jem on Hub.

I was raised by my mom and step-dad.  My step-dad was deployed quite a bit when my sister and I were young, so it was mostly our mom raising us. My parenting style differs quite a bit from my mother's parenting style.  I try not to censor my daughter (neither did my mom with my sister and me, but there were still a few things that we were censored from, I think).  We let our daughter watch pretty much whatever she wants to watch.  There are scenes from some movies that I will not let her watch or even listen to.  Any sexual scenes in movies I either divert her attention or we both leave the room. When I was younger, I remember my mother being at home with my sister and me a lot.  She was active duty Air Force (I think), but she was able to divert time for us.  I'm not able to do that right now, what with working and going to school, but I do what I can.  I know my husband does, too. She let us listen to the music that she enjoyed listening t...

When I'm at work, I receive one of three compliments:  "Your [eye] make-up looks incredible!"  "I love your hair color [currently red]; it looks great with your complexion."  "I wish my complexion was as clear as yours!"  Each of these statements make me blush. There is one element that makes my eye make-up stand out-- glitter.  I *love* to wear glitter.  I wear it on and around my eyes when I go to work.  When I get ready for only class, I leave the glitter at home.  I have found that my "regulars" come in to see what I've done next with my make-up.  The glitter is only the icing; the cake is a combination of the colors that I use and how I blend them.  In fact, earlier today, a older woman ("mature" if you will) asked me if I was doing something special after work since I was wearing all that glitter.  I told her, "No, Ma'am, I always do this with my make-up."  "That's very unusual," was her only ...

On the outside, it seems as though words don't hurt me, but they really do.  I try to be strong for others, even when I'm not doing well myself. When I was in boot camp, I'd already been away from home for some months before.  For a lot of the kids there, it was their first time away from home.  I was strong for them, but several weeks in, I wept.  Looking back on it, I really didn't want to, but I did to show the others that I was also weak.  We stuck together for 9.2 weeks.

Slowly falling, trees swaying Picture frames are hanging closely Far from the edge Of my consciousness The path is laid out in front of me Memories of times long gone Pierce my soul, my body taking the damage Years come and go, flying by It seems so far away now I wish I could have stopped it

Hi, it's your cashier.  Can you do me a super huge favor?  Get off of your cell phone when you come through  my line.  I can't do my job properly if you're busy talking about the latest drama with your sister's best friend's cousin who... y'know?  Also, please don't give me bogus sale ad prices; I have ALL the ads right there at my register and I will call you on your bullshit.  Don't waste your breath.  Do you like having your items bagged randomly?  I don't like TO bag them randomly, but it's difficult to maintain some kind of order if you don't put your items on the belt the way you'd like it bagged.  All I'm going to do is move your items along the belt until I have some like/similar items together.  You may think me doing that wastes your time, but you may end up wasting time at home when you put your groceries away and then bitch about why the cashier didn't bag properly. Stop giving into your child in the checkout line.  ...

Thank you to the past, present, and future service members for your continued service. My husband and I were active duty Navy for 4 and 6 years, respectively.  It's where we met and will always hold a special place in my heart. Here are some of our photos.  My mother posted a bunch of them on Facebook. #1 is with an ABH I became friends with.. and I'm still friends with her.  This was August 2003 onboard USS Peleliu (LHA 5).  We deployed for seven (supposed to be nine) months later that month.  #2 was my cruise book photo.  What you don't see is that I was only wearing the top for our dress blues uniform.  Photo #3 is of me and my boot camp buddy, Danica, on the day we deployed.  #4 is my mom and me.  Photo #5 is still me and my boot camp buddy, Danica; we're somewhere in that picture, standing next to each other.  Photo #6 was taken May 23, 2007-- my 26th birthday.  Bella six months old and Patrick deployed for five months. F...

My faith boils down to Nature-- loving and appreciating Nature and respecting Her.  I;n polytheistic and draw from the deities of other cultures, like Norse, Indian, Native American, Greek, Egyptian, et al.  Two of my favorite Goddesses are Egyptian and Indian-- Isis and Lakshmi.  Another favorite is Kuan Yin (Korean). I use stones and herbs, as well as Tarot cards for divining.  I can be found on a phpbb forum for pagans, where I moderate two forums-- Beginner's Advice and The Crystal Ballroom. I've been a pagan for over ten years now and I've never felt better.

What do I want to leave behind?  How about leaving people to remember five awesome qualities of mine.  This will require some thought, mind you, but I think I can do this. Okay, so this is harder than I thought it was going to be.  I think I ... I may have to come back to this.  I can't think of anything that would be worth remembering.  I bet my husband and friends are better about this.

When customers at work pretend like they don't know how to speak English and just point at things.  I'm so tempted to tell them the same thing I tell my daughter, "Use your words!" I actually wrote an ENTIRE post about customers in general last month, but I caught a lot of flack for it when I posted it in the original avenue.

I work for a large retailer as a cashier.  We're just now getting into an even busier season-- The Holidays.  People are getting ready for Turkey Day and their gift giving day in December.  People upset me on a regular basis.. mostly customers.  I can easily start out a shift in a fantastic mood, but one customer (or FIVE) can come through my line and ruin it for the rest of the day. Shorter, four to five and a half hour shifts are worse than the full eight hour shift.  With the latter, I have two breaks plus an hour lunch.  With the shorter shifts, there's only one break.  Time goes by much slower. I work for a few reasons.  One, I have to.  Two, if I didn't, I'd go stir-crazy.  Three, I feel better when I'm able to earn a living.

That one thing would be that life is unfair, no matter how you look at it.  They also need to know that life is what you make of it.

The human connection is kind of funny, I think.  There's the biological connection that we all have and that connection changed and mutated through the millenia as people migrated around the land masses of the world.  If you trace us all back, further than just a few hundred years on Ancestry, you'll find that we pretty began life in Africa.  At least, that's what my anthropology book states. There's also the digital connection these days.  A large number of the world's population use a desktop or laptop computer.  There are tons of social networking sites where we can find friends, old and new.  This is just a recent change in our connection with one another.

I think you are an amazing woman.  You've done an incredible amount of things in your 30 years; make the next 30 years just as incredible, if not more.  I know you can do it.

If I could change anything, it would be my metabolism.  If it were higher, I'd be able to keep weight off much easier than what I'm doing now.

So, I went to my college's website to check out the catalog for 2010-2011 to see which classes I needed for two different Associate's degrees.  I've already taken most of my core classes; I'm actually finishing up the last three of those this semester (College Algebra, Physical Science [Physics], and State & Local Government). I need six more classes to complete an Associate's degree in Business Administration.  The necessary classes are Principles of Accounting I & II, Business Calculus (just the word "calculus" scares me), Principles of Microeconomics, Principles of Macroeconomics, and Business Law.  The last class flows right into the second Associate's degree I want. I need five more classes for an Associate's in Criminal Justice.  Those necessary classes include:  Fundamentals of Criminal Law, Texas Peace Officer Law, Texas Peace Officer Procedures, Texas Peace Officer Skills, Criminal Investigation, and Legal Aspects of Law Enforc...

My biggest accomplishment is my daughter. My next greatest accomplishment is my bonus son. My third best accomplishment is meeting my soulmate (thank you, US Navy!).