Monday, April 25, 2011

A Whole Bunch of Randomness All Wrapped Up in a Blog Post

Howdy Y'all!

I seriously have so much to talk about...some days there is nothing in my brain, but today there is overload.

The Carol Brady/Florence Henderson Look
I have had pretty much the same hair-do for the past 3 or 4 years, so I have decided to let it grow out for a bit.  I have tried this before - but, I always feel like I get this Florence Henderson look to my hair.  I have been so happy with the way it has been looking for the past several weeks - but today - Carol Brady made an appearance.  It is not so much that I have a mullet, but it likes to do this weird flip up thing at the ends and curl down on top.  Seriously, it is not a good look.  The question is - can I get past this weird phase and actually continue to grow it out.  I guess only time will tell - one month away is my appointment to see Taylor (the best hair dresser in the world at Cabin Red Salon) - so will I tell her to chop or just to trim???

Noah and the Arc
I can't really imagine what 40 days and nights of rain is like.  It has been raining here for 4 days straight - and not only is it depressing just to see gray skies and a wet ground, it has not gotten pretty dangerous to drive in certain areas of Northwest Arkansas because the flooding has started.  I have lived here for 11 years and I have never seen it rain like this.  You almost have to have a boat in some areas just to get around.  I am lucky to live on top of a hill and I love that!  We keep joking around at work that if we see a large boat (an arc) go by - we better hop on while we can.  :)  For all my peeps in Texas reading this, I really just wish I could bottle up the rain and send it your way.

Friendships
Have you ever had a friendship that just falls by the wayside, but you really don't know what happened?  I had one of those and it had really been weighing on me for quite some time.  I decided to use the power of facebook and send her a message since I can do that without actually being "friends" with her on FB.  Right after hitting send, I wondered if it was the right thing to do - would she laugh at me for trying to apologize for the end of our friendship, would she find it sincere, who knows what was going to happen.  Then, over a week passes and you really begin to question if your email was the right thing to do.  I feel like today a peace has washed over me as I got a reply back from this friend from years past.  Of course, she did as much apologizing, if not more, than I did.  I am not sure what will become of our friendship over the next few months - but, I am so grateful that I reached out in a heart felt way and it was received warmly.  It is amazing how little things can cause such great problems.  I would love to hand out this one piece of advice...if this has happened to you, reach out to the person because they are probably just as scared to reach out to you!

Adoptions
My former boss (a couple of times actually) is adopting a little girl from China right now - and it is such a joy to see their new blog posts everyday and see how much they are falling in love with that precious little girl.  I am going to share the link with you all here too so you can all pray for their safe return in just a few short days.

http://thegreatwaitforlilahkate.blogspot.com/

Thanks for listening to my rambling for tonight - I will sign out for now and eat my yummy dinner (blackened salmon!) since my husband is yelling for me to come eat!

Toodles!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The "Lost" History

Howdy Y'all!

I am not sure if you are with me - but, I hated history growing up and I made fun of my dad for constantly watching the History channel.  Mrs. Hutt (for all you Westwood Junior Highers) and one of my professors in college (I can't remember his name) made history semi-enjoyable, but it was still never my favorite.  I was a math girl, of course.

However, as I am getting older (and maybe wiser too), I am beginning to really love history.  Traveling to Washington DC in August opened my eyes to history that I never knew.  It was just "lost", I guess.  I felt like such an idiot that I didn't know that when President Lincoln was assassinated that it was a big conspiracy.  Was I the only one that didn't know that John Wilkes Booth didn't act alone?  And, that there was a bigger goal in mind when he killed Lincoln.  There were others that also tried to kill the Vice President and the Secretary of State.  Of course, here I am in the Ford Theater learning all of this and feeling like a big ole dummy.

On Friday, there was a movie that was made about one of the people accused of being part of this conspiracy.  It was a fascinating movie to me because I was learning more about a story that I didn't know much about.  It makes me want to read books about it and learn more.  I actually become a googling fool after watching something like this to see if I can find more and more information.  I know what you are thinking, "Man, she is such a nerd!"

On Sunday, I watched the Kennedy mini-series as well.  I had recorded them from the Reelz channel and finally got all caught up.  Again, this was fascinating to me...I didn't know that JFK had an older brother that Joe Kennedy was grooming to become President, I didn't know JFK suffered from medical issues including a back problem and I didn't know about one of his sisters that was mentally handicapped and had a lobotomy performed on her causing her to live the rest of her life in a near vegetable state.  And, as I just said above, I become so interested and was googling away while I was watching.

So, what is the point of all of my rambling??  Well, I am not sure if it would have made it anymore interesting, but it would have been great to have been taught some of these things instead of just the dates and basics about what took place.  I get so much more out of history when I know the back story.  If you know of some biographies or historical books that I could read to feed by nerdy desire, let me know.  :)

Toodles!

Friday, April 15, 2011

Help! I'm Not Lost, But I Need Somewhere to Go!

Howdy Y'all!

I am a BIG fan of travel - but, I had not planned a trip for this year because we would have a small baby in the house.  Now that there is no baby, I am dying to plan a trip, but I need your help!

I am not sure if I am being lazy about this - but, I want to hear all of the wonderful suggestions that you have for places to travel in North America (I am limiting it to North America because I still have so much money tied up in adoption and I figure NA would be the cheapest option).  A few suggestions that people have given me are San Diego, a cruise, Alaska, etc...BUT, I want to hear your opinions and why you think it should be the place we pick for our vacation destination.

We like busy and we like chill.  In the past couple of years, we have been on trips to Washington DC, NYC, Chicago, Hilton Head, SC, Las Vegas, Orlando and San Francisco...so these are all out even though I think I could visit Orlando and Walt Disney World about every month for the next 30 years and not get bored.  I am just trying to get some variety in our lives because Tony does want to see something other than Florida.  :)

We would love your help!

Toodles!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Grooming Tips

Howdy Y'all!

Early last week, we (being the Walmart US Finance department) received our monthly newsletter from HR department.  If I am being honest, these normally go unread by myself and many of the others that I work with - however, the latest newsletter spread like wildfire!

In the newsletter was a column giving us all grooming tips.  Let me describe the folks that make up the Walmart US Finance department.  99% of us are college educated (and let me say that most of them have a much better education that me), most of us have worked for Walmart for 5+ years and 99.9999999% of us dress and groom ourselves appropriately.

Here is a sample of the tips we were given...I can't make this stuff up...SERIOUSLY!

  • Shower at least once a day.  This one sounds like a given to me - but, I will admit that I do the minimum here.  You don't get more than one shower from me.
  • Don't wear the same shoes two days in a row - and clean them when you take them off and put them on a shoe tree.  Okay, I have the "don't wear the same shoes two days in a row" down and this rule does sound like a good excuse to buy more shoes - BUT, I don't clean them when I get home.  Ask Tony - he knows exactly what I do with them.  I kick them off in the living room and a pile of shoes collect there until the weekend.  I am thinking now that maybe I did need grooming tips after all!
  • Change your deodorant regularly to avoid building up a tolerance to it.  Okay, really?  I work around lots of people daily - and I can only think of one person that may need to follow this one.
  • Don't overload pockets with too many accessories.  Isaac has this one down!  His solution - a murse (man purse)! He even has two different colors to coordinate with his outfit.  Love it.
  • Visit your hairdresser regularly and keep hair in good condition.  Thanks to Taylor at Cabin Red Salon - I have this one down pat.
  • Visit the dentist and hygienist regularly.  Dang!  I'm busted!!  My father-in-law is a dentist and Tony and I haven't gotten a dentist here yet.  But, I need to make an appointment.  This week...I promise!
These just crack me up.  It has been almost a week now and I still find it funny.  Kaye Cullum, I would like to thank you and "your team" for sending this out so I could get a good chuckle.

Toodles!


Thursday, April 7, 2011

Happy One Month Birthday Kinley

Howdy Y'all!

One month ago, Tony and I woke up to over two feet of snow in Plattsburgh, NY and we had to figure out how to get to the hospital to be there for the birth of our baby girl.  Of course, the good news was that we made it to the hospital with the help of a very nice man at the hotel - but, the bad news was three days later Kinley's mom decided to keep her instead of allowing us to adopt her.

There has been a day in the last month that I haven't thought about that sweet baby girl.  This month should have gone so much differently than it did.

  • We were supposed to be able to snuggle with a warm baby any time we wanted.
  • I was not supposed to be at work - but, instead spend time bonding with Kinley.
  • We got way more sleep than we expected (maybe this one isn't bad after all).
  • We missed out on her two-day and two-week check up.
  • We never knew if she ever started gaining weight.
  • We didn't change any poopy diapers.
  • We didn't get to feed and burp her.
We obviously miss her sweet face - and her little tiny cry, but most of all, we continuously think and pray that her birthmom is making good decisions with her life and putting Kinley/Emma first.  We know that we could have given her a great life - and I just hope and pray that she still has a good life with Sarah.

We miss you dearly - but, we wanted to wish you a happy one month birthday.

Toodles!