Rant Alert!

   
     By the way guys, I didn't just forget about days 24 and 25 of my blog challenge. Those days...really really sucked as far as topics go. Definitely not worth me trying to come up with something for them y'all probably wouldn't enjoy reading!

     Today I just really need to vent a little steam about something that has been getting on my nerves for a good while. I've been a good, tolerant little girl and kept my mouth shut, but it's just gotta come out today.

     I don't know about y'all, but my Facebook lately has been taken over by the skinny-crazy people. The people who are obsessed with losing weight, working out, anything they can do to make their bodies more pleasing to themselves.
     I've got people doing Zumba classes, people on every diet imaginable, people promoting this or that amazing new gym with cheap membership, people going group walking two or three nights a week, people running 5ks and marathons. It's basically the Fit Network, all relocated to my Facebook!
     There's this one new thing going around the FB world...Advocare. It's a pyramid-scheme company based on selling weight loss/energy/health supplements and promoting short-term plans for losing weight using Advocare products. Out of my friends, first a core group of several people started using this product, then selling it on the side. They were hooked, and they hooked their husbands and wives, their friends, and their families along with them. All of a sudden all of they quit having personal lives on Facebook. Every single post was 100% focused on promoting and selling Advocare, recruiting more sellers to be in their sales team, nothing but Advocare. No more posts about their kids antics, their husbands sarcastic comments, their crazy days at work...just Advocare.
     There are several things I'd like to fix with this picture. Facebook is a social network, not the place to conduct regular business. I realize it's probably a well-paying, rewarding job that you really love, but if you want to tie your business into Facebook, make a group or a separate page for it. Don't spam everyone on your friends list with your every post. A group or a separate page will allow you to post all you want, and everyone that actually wants to see it will. You can invite whoever you want to your group/page, and if they say no, you say okay and move along. Making the occasional comment or shout-out is great, but spam about a product I didn't want in the first place doesn't make me change my mind about it.

     Next, and this is a much bigger issue than just Advocare spam on Facebook, but it is connected. I realize I live in Mississippi, the obese state. I realize that our country as a whole has more and more overweight people each year. I realize that's a serious health concern that people need to be educated on dealing with. However...I am not obese. I am not overweight. Just because many people out there are dealing with this issue, it doesn't mean I have to deal with it also. I don't think it's fair to me, or to anyone out there who is already healthy, to basically be told to get healthier now because we'll probably be overweight one day.
     Schools no longer allow kids to choose whether to eat healthy snacks or to eat ice cream with lunch, whether they can pick between water and diet drinks or whether they can drink a Coke. Even high schoolers, who are by most people's definition old enough to make their own decisions about their food, have their choice taken away from them. My opinion - if you don't offer any choice at school, they'll just bring what they want from home, so what good are you doing?
     And it goes farther. The first lady recently announced that if her husband is reelected this fall, one of the things she's planning on tackling in the next term is cutting sugars, fats, and sodium from grocery store products. Now, as an adult and an American, I know that I have the right to choose whatever the heck I want to eat, no matter how horrible or how healthy it may be. I don't need the government making that choice for me. The way I see it, now you have the choice between Oreos or 100 Calorie pack cookies, whole or skim milk, Cheeto puffs or baked Doritos...you already have the option to pick your 'healthy' level.

     To be honest, sometimes I honestly feel discriminated against in that I'm NOT obese, on a diet, a member of a gym, or otherwise on the 'Get Healthy' kick. I'm a small person, always have been. I've always been active, doing band in high school and walking when I was at college. In the last five or six years, I've had health problems (ie mono, twice) that caused me to lose a lot of weight I really didn't need to lose in the first place, and then I had to work at gaining all of it back. I'm still working on getting back to my normal weight from the last time I was sick, in December of last year. It's very hard for me personally to gain weight, and made harder to do in this lose-lose-lose world. I'm sure there are people who have thought I was anorexic or something, when all of a sudden I dropped 20 pounds from my normal weight and took over a year to gain it back. I know there are people that hate the fact that I can eat whatever I want and it doesn't show. I know it's something lots of people would love to do, but honestly it's something I get tired of. When I get ugly looks just because I order a milkshake, it's time for people to take a reality check. Sometimes the grass isn't greener on the skinny side.
     Please don't get me wrong, I'm in no way knocking people for being healthy or for trying to get fit. I am always on the cheering team for anyone who wants to start a new diet, or train for their first 5k, or just have fun with the Wii Fit Plus. I have so many friends that have changed their lives completely by joining Weight Watchers or by starting training to run, and I know how much a difference it's made for them. I love that they all had that much will-power and strength of commitment to see their goals through. I may make jokes about me never going running unless something chases me, but I really do admire the people I know that can get up every day and just go run and feel amazing when they finish. They're absolutely a special people. I just want to make it clear that I think it's all about our choice, our free will, to decide when and if we want to take that step for ourselves.

Day 23: List your top 5 hobbies and why you love them.

     Challenge day 23: List your top 5 hobbies and why you love them.

1. Reading: I love reading, always have. I can't really explain why, except that I grew up reading, from baby age on up. My parents read to me and told me stories before I could even understand, so from that time I understood books as something pleasing and comfortable and good. Now I read to pass the time in waiting rooms, to get relaxed before I fall asleep, to calm down after I get home from work, or to just pass any free time I have. I even 'read' while I drive, listening to audiobooks. Definitely makes those early morning drives to work less sleepy, and the evening drives home seem a little faster.

2. Crafting: Since Pinterest came about, I've gotten a renewed liking for any kind of crafty project. Anything that I have laying around the house that is on the plain side or that I don't particularly like has the potential to transform into something new. I always loved little art and decorating projects like that, ever since I got interested in art in high school, and Pinterest is just fuel to the fire :)
     My favorite seasons are coming up, the ones with all the good weather and good holidays! We haven't ever been big decorators, mostly just reusing the same things every year for Christmas and sometimes putting out one or two little things for Halloween and Easter. I did some pretty things for Christmas last year, and this year I'm getting even more creative. Hopefully soon I'll be able to show off pictures of all the new holiday lovelies I've added our collection!

For real! The first step to getting help is admitting you have a problem...

3. I love playing the piano, and I love singing as well. I've played the piano for fifteen years, and it's a great release for me. Best stress reliever ever made. Singing I like much better when it's just me, in my car, and I can turn up the volume of both the music and me, and nobody can hear anything I do. If any other car happens to catch sight of me, well then they'll just get a show of dancing like they've probably never seen.

4. I like to cook, and bake, and experiment with new things in the kitchen. My favorite thing to do is desserts, unique things that come out pretty and taste even better than they look. I'm not a picky cook. I don't eat spaghetti, but I've made up my own signature recipe that my family loves. I make a big effort to do things the old fashioned way, as much homemade as possible. Everything just seems to taste better that way!

5. This is probably my newest hobby, but I really do love to blog. I just started my blog about a year and a half ago, but I very quickly got hooked. I always hated having to write in a journal for school and I never could keep a diary, so I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed blogging so much. Maybe it's because it's so customizeable, or it's so easy and fast to just type your words instead of having to pen them out. Whatever it is, I'm glad I started.

Day 22: Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10? 15?

Challenge day 22: Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 15 years?

     In 5 years, I will be 28 years old. I'd like to think I see myself still with BancorpSouth. I might not be in my current position as a teller, maybe a CSR or something, but I don't see myself leaving the bank anytime soon. I love the company, and I don't think I could find a better job anywhere else. I'm planning to finish out my Bachelor's degree through Ole Miss, though my major is still undecided. And I hope to be in a small house of my own somewhere in Pontotoc or Tupelo. As far as my love life in concerned, I don't have any plans except to pray and hope that God has something good in the works.

     In 10 years, I will be 33 years old. I hope that by then I will be married and have at least started a family. If I'm lucky and very hard working between now and then, we might can have our house built where and how we would like it to be. I wouldn't mind at all still working for BancorpSouth still; they're a fabulous corporation, but I can't say that my plans and career won't change. I might go for my Bachelors, fall in love with a totally different career, and be working somewhere I never imagined.

     In 15 years, I will be 38. Maybe at that age my husband and I will be busy with our children's various activities. Ball practice, or music lessons, or homework, or Bible drills, whatever they want to be involved in. I hope to still love my job, whatever it may be. And I hope to be content with my life, however it turns out.

Day 21: If you could have one superpower, what would it be and what would you do with it first?

Challenge day 21: If you could have one superpower, what would it be and what would you do with it first?

     This one is a fun topic! I've been waiting on this one, because I have a fun answer :)

     If I could have one superpower, I would choose to have Jedi powers! That's right. I watch Star Wars, yes. My parents raised me right. I watch Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Lonesome Dove, John Wayne, movies where people blow stuff up and fight with guns and swords and do 'manly' stuff (my dad tells us we have to balance out the estrogen movies with stuff like that, haha). 

     Jedi powers are awesome. First, they have the whole telekinesis thing, the ability to move things with their mind, which I have always found completely awesome. I would love to be sitting at my desk, or laying in my bed, and be able to think "Book, come here," or "Pen, come here," and have it glide right over to me. 

     Second, they can influence the way others think. You know, the "These aren't the droids you're looking for," thing. I probably wouldn't use that so much, but I can't say that I wouldn't use it if I got pulled over or something. "Officer, this isn't the speeding car you're looking for..." 

     Third, they have hyper-aware senses. If someone they're tuned into walks into the building, they know. If anything bad happens to someone they're connected to, they can sense it. I think that would be pretty cool to be able to sense people walking in and out of your house, or if your kid got sick at school. The hyper-awareness almost extends to knowing the outcome of a situation before it even occurs. That's probably the most appealing thing to me. I'm a planner, and any knowledge of an event ahead of time is almost calming to me, and definitely makes me more comfortable knowing that I am more prepared for what's coming.

     Last, and I'm not sure if this qualifies as a part of their power, but it's definitely connected to it. Jedi's have lightsabers, and those are freaking awesome! Who wouldn't want to tote a lightsaber around? I'd want one like Mace Windu's...purple! 

Day 20: Describe 3 significant memories from your childhood - Dedicated to my grandparents.

Challenge day 20: Describe 3 significant memories from your childhood.

This blog is dedicated to my grandparents, Barbara and Larry Hale, who I love very, very much.

     This past weekend we went up to Memphis to get my mama, granddaddy and grandmama settled into their hotel. My granddaddy has multiple myeloma, cancer of his bone marrow, and has been taking chemo all summer. He's starting his most important treatment soon, intensive chemo to get his system ready for a bone marrow transplant next month, that will attempt to send his cancer into remission. He felt really good Saturday for the first time in a long time, so we all went out to eat where he wanted, at Cracker Barrel so he could get a steak and fried apples. He even felt good enough to sit outside in their rockers afterward for probably an hour talking to all of us. Definitely the best day we've all spend together in a very long time. 

     Being up there with them, just spending time like that, got me thinking about the many times I've stayed with my grandparents, or that we've gone on vacation with them, or all the Christmases we've had over there. Most of my happiest childhood memories are ones with them in them. Life was so simple and so laid back when I was at my grandparents' house. I have never felt less than amazingly loved and one of the most important things in their lives. They call me their 'loving' grandchild, because I have always loved crawling up in their laps and hugging and kissing on them, but really I think I got that from them. I was their first grandbaby, and I was probably the most loved baby that ever lived. Not much has changed since then; I'm still hugged and kissed on constantly, I'm still spoiled by them, and I'm still loved beyond measure.  

     My granddaddy was a farmer my whole life, and my grandmama either helped him in the field or stayed at their house to work in the garden or spend time with me if I was over there. Many of my memories with them are from the times they let me go with them to the fields, or of walking with Grandmama to the creek behind their house...things like that. Most kids didn't have such a precious, simple life like that, but I wouldn't trade anything in the world for those memories. I loved walking to the creek with my Grandmama, especially if it had just rained and I could walk barefoot through the mud. I remember getting to go to the fields with them if they were working, and riding the tractor with Granddaddy, and drinking the best, coldest water out of their water jugs and snacking on the salted peanuts Granddaddy always had in his shirt pocket. In the fall when they harvested the soybeans or cotton, they'd let me play in the trailerload of shelled beans or fluffy white cotton bolls. It was kind of like having the biggest sandbox ever full of little soybeans, or laying on the biggest pillow ever. If they worked in the garden I would walk behind them, digging in the dirt for marbles - the plot where their garden was used to be an old houseplace. Over the years we found dozens of marbles there. My first marble was a little periwinkle blue one. I still have it. Grandmama was never too busy to take time out to fix me biscuits and gravy for breakfast, or watch me ride my bike in the carport, or push me in the swing that used to be in their front yard, or walk me to my Mawma's house next door. At night, after they let me stay up way too late watching tv with them, they'd tuck me into my bed under as many blankets and quilts as I wanted, all of them soft as can be from being washed a hundred times. 

     I can't remember ever being unhappy with them, or wanting to go home, or wishing I had someone else to play with when I was at their house. If it was just me and them, the I couldn't be happier. I wish everybody had memories with their grandparents as wonderful as I have. I hope one day I'm as loving and as patient and as giving and as strong a role model of a grandparent to my grandchildren as my grandparents are to me. If I'm half the grandparents they are, I will have accomplished something great indeed. 

I love you Granddaddy and Grandmama.

Here's some of our pics. Please excuse them not being the best quality, most of them are old photos scanned into my computer on not the best quality scanner. But for my purpose, it's the picture and not the quality that counts here.

My grandmama and me, I'm about a year old.

My grandmama and me the day Molly was born

My granddaddy and Molly, Caleb, and me on Halloween, 1998

My grandmama mowing the yard, letting me ride in the leaf catcher

My granddaddy on one of our vacations. He wouldn't ride a real horse, but he said this one was safe :)

Family pictures, I think I'm about 13 here.

Our vacation to California. Behind us is the Pacific ocean.

Christmas card pictures, 2005

Another Christmas picture

And another :)

My loving grandparents

Christmas picture 2006, by my granddaddy's airplane

Christmas picture 2007

My Grandmama, Mama, and me on dressing making day last fall

My grandparent's Christmas card picture maybe three years ago

This was the last family picture we had made before my aunt Tiffany died in 2004, the last time my original family was all together. I miss her very much, and I know my grandparents do too. This week makes 8 years since we lost her, and I know that makes this week for them especially tough. 

A few years ago my uncle got remarried to an amazing lady named Barbara, and she has a fabulous daughter Molly's age, Lauren. Gable couldn't have picked anyone better. No one could ever replace Tiffany, but Barbara is the best mom Caleb could ask for and I know she loves him like he's her own son, and we love her just like she has been with us all along. Lauren has been great for Caleb as well. I don't think he'd know what to do now without an older sister to fight with, haha. Hopefully sometime soon I can convince everyone to do another set of family pictures, this time with our new additions :)

Playing Catch-Up - Days 17, 18, and 19

Challenge day 17: What is the thing you most wish you were great at? 

     Hmmm...this one is a hard one! There are a lot of little things I wish I could do better, like sing or speak Spanish or sew. I think most of all though, I wish that instead of having my talents spread out more or less equally over a large range of things that I could swap some of that over to being really good at just one or two things. I think it'd make a lot of things easier for me, like picking a career haha. Don't get me wrong, I love being able to do all the things I can, but sometimes I wish I could just pick one! But I don't think I could ever give up my art and crafting for my piano, or reading for cooking and baking. I wouldn't want to trade being able to speak Spanish to make my bookkeeping and math abilities better. So I guess I'd have to answer that I don't really have one thing I'd wish to be great at. I'd rather just be good at all the things I already am.  

Day 18: What has been the most difficult thing you have had to forgive?

     The hardest I've ever had to work at forgiving someone was when my fiance and I broke up. When someone you don't know or who doesn't have a large impact on your life wrongs you, it isn't fun but it isn't life changing. When its someone you love...its much harder to first recognize it, and then to deal with it, and then let it go.
     My fiance and I were not very far away from actually tying the knot. We had been together for years, and been through some very difficult things together. He had joined the Marines while we were together, and we managed to stay together through the long distance and the mental craziness that comes with that. He came home, and suddenly everything changed. My fiance wasn't the person I fell in love with, and he didn't care. It felt like everything he did was to test the limits of my commitment, see just how far I'd tolerate him going to break my trust. After months of that, I knew I couldn't handle it forever. I told him I couldn't agree to marry him until we got things straight. He told me that I was the one with problems, he had everything figured out, and when I got my life straight I could give him a call. I knew I had made the right choice. I gave him back my ring, drove away from his house, and never looked back.
     Afterward I found out he had been cheating on me, and somehow everyone knew but me. He even had the nerve to tell me he would stop seeing her if I'd come back. I think that hurt more than anything else, knowing that even though he was my only, I was his second best.
     It's been three years since we broke up. Nowadays, we're friendly to the point that we chat on Facebook. It took me a long time to get to that point. It took a long time to get to the point where I didn't think of him with anger at what he did, or sadness for the life I might have had if he hadn't done those things. Now I know that I am so much better off, and have had such a fuller life and will continue having that life. But it took a lot of prayer, a lot of late night talks, a lot of really having to make myself believe that I had come out on top. And to be honest, I still sometimes miss the companionship I had in him, the way we never ran out of things to talk about, the amazing dates we had without spending over $5, the happy, spontaneous, warm person I became when I had someone to be fun and loving with. But I hope, and believe, that one day I'll have another chance at love and it'll be a thousand times better, because this time it'll be forever.

Challenge day 19: If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?

     This is an easy one! I'm probably in the minority with my answer, but I would rather live here in North Mississippi where I already live than anywhere else I've ever been, and I've been quite a few places. 

     I'm a huge home-body. I don't want to be far from my family. If you need an airplane to come home to visit, that's entirely too far. Pretty much, if you have to drive over an hour. that's too far too. 

     My ideal home would be somewhere in Pontotoc, Oxford, or Tupelo, but out in the country where I can build my house on a lot with tons of trees and privacy, no neighbors right up in your backyard, no traffic noise, no busyness right next to you. Your house is where you go to be at home, to be yourself. It doesn't need to be somewhere you can't get comfortable.

     Hopefully with my new job, all the saving up I'm doing will help my dream house become my real house very soon! There will be MANY blogs to follow if that happens, so just be ready!

FYBF: New Job Fun!

Borrowed from thedomesticatedme.blogspot.com

     

     Anybody else SOOOO glad it's finally FRIDAY?!?!? I've had a great week, but I don't think I've ever been so ready for a Friday to get here. I'm finally finished with my training for my teller job at BancorpSouth, and my brain is tired! There's so much information to absorb and remember, so many procedures you have to be familiar with and follow to the letter, all kinds of forms to know and remember which one to use and when. After two weeks of all that I was getting a little bit of information overload. 

     This week I finally got to begin working a teller window on my own - with a little supervision from my trainer Cori, just to make sure I'm being a good little teller. I worked the drive-through for the first time tonight as well; I think that's my favorite thing so far. I like actually working much better than reading manuals and working computer simulation modules! I'm a very hands-on, learn by doing person so I've learned much more working the window than in the simulations. 

     Next Monday comes the big day...I leave the training nest for a window of my own and all the fun stuff it comes with. I already got my first BancorpSouth t-shirt, but I'm really excited for that little nameplate saying Alyssa to sit in front of my window :) Y'all can all come see me down at teller window #2. 

     Honestly, I'm more excited than nervous. My trainer has been great at letting me work with her and covering all the topics I need to know even outside the manuals. I don't think I've ever been so thoroughly trained at any job, and I'm very thankful for that! Working with money, especially some of the bigger transactions, you want to be as careful as possible and as sure of yourself as you can. At this point both my bosses and I want me to focus on being correct, not fast, but I can already tell my counting out is getting faster and easier, and I'm more sure about processing my transactions. Next week will really seal the deal for me as far as really hammering in that learning!   

     Monday when I get my in my window and all the cool accessories, I promise to take pics and update. See y'all back then!

    

 

Day 16: What are your 5 greatest accomplishments?

Challenge day 16: What are your 5 greatest accomplishments?

     Okay, this one I'm going to cheat on a little. I don't necessarily think that I can come up with 5 things that I think of as 'great' accomplishments. Yes, you do things every day that are accomplishments. Every little goal you reach is an accomplishment. But being able to call them great...that's a little harder for me.

     I do think that me being able to get this job at Bancorp South is a great accomplishment for me. A lot of people work their whole lives for a job as great as the one I have now. My personal goals I set when I started looking for a new job this summer were that I didn't have to go back to school forever to do it, I would get paid well and have benefits, and that I could go to work and come home happy each day. That's it, pretty simple. Well when this job landed in my lap, I honestly was so surprised and happy I didn't know what to think. I've wanted a job with them since last Christmas but hadn't been able to get it for one reason or another, then all of a sudden I'm sitting behind the teller desk! And I fulfilled all my goals: I only have to go back to school if I want to, and BCS helps me if I do; I have better benefits than I ever dreamed of and a great salary, plus they're very generous with bonuses and encouraging us with raises; and I'm happy - I have come home every day tired but happy in that I am going to love my job and keep loving it for a long, long time.

     This might be strange to some people, but I consider me having traveled so much at such a young age a great accomplishment. Again, I know many people older than me that have never seen the outside of Mississippi, yet I've seen over half of the states in the US and been outside the country multiple times, even by myself, which is an accomplishment all its own. Traveling gives you an opportunity to broaden your mind in a way you'd never be able to sitting at home, and it's just plain fun any way you slice it.

     Even though I'm not happy that I only have an Associates degree, I know that going to college and getting any degree is an accomplishment. Every degree takes hard work, and mine was no different. Even if I'm not planning to stay at that level forever, I know to respect the effort it took to get there.

     

     

     These are the next things I hope to accomplish and I consider them to be very great accomplishments. First, and I've already started this, is to save and invest my money so that I can build up a nest egg. I like to have money already put back if something comes up that I especially want or for any kind of expense I might not have seen coming. Next, I want to find myself a small house somewhere out here in Thaxton or Hurricane hopefully, and start making it mine :) That's what I want next as far as big goals, to have my own place and be independent. Wish me luck on those, they're big things but I don't have any doubt I'll get there!

Day 15: If you were an animal, what would you be and why?

Challenge day 15: If you were an animal, what would you be and why?

     Seriously? Somebody skipped out on making up their question.

     Very well. If I were an animal, I think I'd want to be...a hummingbird maybe? I don't think I'd want to be something ordinary like a dog or a cow or a fish. Definitely not anything cold weather bound. No bugs or lizards or snakes. 

     I admit this isn't something I have ever put much though in before. I don't care for this line of psychology, and I don't think you can glean much information about someone's personality from questions like this. 

     We have hummingbirds around our house all summer. My mom puts out probably ten feeders as soon as it gets warm and they just swarm them. They're very funny to watch, and they're pretty in all their jeweltones. The big ones and the little ones fight over who gets to eat first, and they flit around in pairs or groups chasing each other. They just look like they have fun all day long. Then when fall comes, they fly back to whatever tropical place they came from, and vacation all winter. Fabulous life!

Blue and green

Hot pink

Lime green...I kind of think I'd like to be one of these.

Coral...or these, they look tropical!

Green...ours look like these

Even purple!

This one looks like a butterfly :)

Days 13 and 14: PASS!

Challenge days 13 and 14: I'm not at all enthused by these two days' topics. List your 5 weaknesses/strengths. A good deal of my time lately has been spent in job interviews coming up with answers to these questions and ones similar. And frankly, I think those kinds of questions should stay in job interviews, and I should stay out of them as much as possible! 

Since I feel bad cheating out of a post, here's some random things I've been thinking on lately:

- GermX always makes your hands sticky when you use it. Won't new germs just stick to you?

- Men would just look strange if they wore all the big, colorful, blingy earrings us girls do.

- Pearls are really just attractive oyster tumors.

- How in the world was potpourri ever popular? I've never smelled potpourri and thought "Oh wow! That smells fantastic! I must buy some!"

- The smaller the injury, the greater the immediate pain response. Chop my leg off...OW that hurts! Stub my toe...Holy mother of a monkey's uncle!!! Get lemon juice on a papercut...@*#%&$*!!!!!

- Nothing fixes procrastination like running out of clean underwear.

- Or like realizing that was actually the seventh time you punched the snooze button.

- On that same train of thought, nothing makes time go faster and traffic go slower than you running late.

- Going back to real film cameras would solve a lot of the dumb self-portrait epidemic on Facebook. Seriously, who thinks the duckface or sticking your tongue out is flattering enough to waste money on?

- One day they'll probably figure out all our nail polish and makeup causes horrible cancer or tumors or something. Good thing we'll know how to die pretty!

- If a toothless person goes to hell, how can they gnash their teeth?

Enjoy reading! I know I had fun writing...haha!

Day 12: Describe a typical day in your current life.

Challenge day 12: Describe a typical day in your current life.

     Well, my typical days have just switched up on me! As of this week, my new typical is:

6:40 - Push the snooze button when the alarm goes off

6:54 - Actually get up, get dressed, put makeup on, fix my hair

7:25 - Leave Deer Park for Tupelo

8:00 - 5:30 - Learning my new job at BancorpSouth :)

5:30 - Leave Tupelo, run any errands, head home

6:00 ish - Arrive at the Casa de los Falkners, collapse on couch

8:00-10:00 - Eat supper, shower, get my clothes together, clean

10:30 - Attempt to head towards bed...most of the time unsuccessfully

11:30-12:00 - Actually make it to bed

Day 11 - Describe 10 pet peeves you have

Day 11 - Describe 10 pet peeves you have.

Funny enough, this one was fun to write. Usually you try to ignore all your pet peeves, or not let people know little things bother you, but it's kind of nice to just let it all out :) On the other hand, if my future husband ever reads my blog, there'll be no chance of hiding my OCD quirks until it's too late to back out! Hope he's already tasted my cooking by then, maybe I'll have a chance!

1. Folding towels crooked. They just fit in the cabinet better folder.

2. Actually, folding clothes crooked period. If I fold clothes, I take my time and I fold them neatly. No sense in taking them from the pile if you're just going to wad them up in a stack.

3. Dryer ironing. Irons are sold separately, and boards too.

4. When the covers on your bed get all wrinkled and untucked at the bottom, and your toes stay cold because they're peeking out all night long. Plus, if your toes peek out, then the spiders and monsters can get you.

5. When you go to eat a bowl of cereal and can't, because the person before you has only left the crumbs in the bottom of the box or used up all the milk. Same thing goes for taking the last can Coke and leaving the box there so everyone thinks there's still something in it.

6. Finding something you love on a sale rack, and it's a great price, then getting up to the register and learning that it's there by mistake and not on sale at all.

7. Reality TV, rap/heavy metal music, and stupid comedy. Oh, and video games.

8. Parents who insist their small children 'want' to be in beauty pageants, tumbling class, Spanish lessons, traveling ball...guys, your little kids just want to play and have fun. Competition and stress should not be part of their lives until it has to. They'll be living with it forever, let them live without it as long as possible.

9. Snoring. I hope beyond hope my future husband doesn't snore! Because if he does I'll have to manage to fall asleep before him every night if I'm ever going to sleep at all. If I'm in a hotel room with a snorer, I'm basically not sleeping. I count every snore. And resist the urge to smother them with all the extra pillows.

10. People who make drinking and smoking everyone else's problem. I don't care if you're drunk every day before noon or if you're personally keeping Marlboro afloat, but do it where we all don't have to put up with it.

Day 10: My most embarrasing moment

Day 10: My most embarrasing moment

This one was sooo much fun to think of...yeah right.

For my 18th birthday, my mom, sister Meagan, and I flew out to LA to spend the Fourth of July break with my then-fiance Smith, who was stationed at 29 Palms. The first day out there we went to eat at Bubba Gump's on the Santa Monica pier. My loving mother got the bright idea to tell them it was my birthday. At a normal restaurant it wouldn't be so bad - they bring you free dessert, maybe even sing to you. Not there. At Bubba Gump's you stand on a chair in the middle of the restaurant while they sing and you are supposed to dance. Oh HECK no. For one I don't stand in chairs, the fear of heights thing, two I don't like people staring at me, and three I sure don't dance! I'm sure my face was seven shades of red when I got down, and I don't think I talked to my mama for the rest of the day!

Day 9: List 10 people who have influenced you, and describe how.

Challenge day 9: List 10 people who have influenced you, and describe how.

     I actually already wrote a post very similar to this, so instead of writing a redundant post, I'm just going to link you back to it! Here's the link!

     Instead of writing a double post, I've been really busy crafting today :) Since I start my new job Monday :) I'm living it up this weekend finishing all the little craft projects I have laying around the house. So far today I've made two flower arrangements for a cousin and repainted some tomato cages to make some outdoor Christmas trees...more on those later!

   

Day 8: What are 5 passions you have?

Challenge day 8: What are 5 passions you have?

     Every child deserves an amazing literary education. Reading helps kids out so much. The do betting in vocabulary and spelling, even in other subjects like math and science. They’re better spoken, more mature, and they know how to use their imaginations. Best of all, they’re happier, without all the toys and tv!

     I think that every person needs to strive to become a well-rounded individual. By that, I mean you have your job and your main talents and knowledge, but you still spend time learning about things you don’t know and practicing skills you don’t have.

     I think that it’s better to wait for something you really want than compromise and give in early for something that’s mediocre. If it’s something you know you want, you’ve wanted it for a long time, you’re willing to wait for it, do it. Why settle for something less than your ideal when you don’t have to?

     I’m very passionate about giving back, and being involved in your community. Giving back doesn’t always mean giving of your money; time is sometimes even more valuable, and I’m glad I’ve grown up learning that firsthand.

     Lastly, at least for this post, I absolutely believe everyone should have something they can go to that’s their ‘happy place’, their release, something they can go do that can turn a bad day around and take away all their stress, at least for a little while. It can be a long bath, a nap, going running, playing video games (ugh…), shopping, whatever, so long as when you get through you feel 100% better than when you started!

Day 7: What is your dream job, and why?

Challenge day 7: What is your dream job, and why?

Day 6 was 'What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced?', but I'm sort of having a superstitious feeling about answering it and then something way worse happening. Even though I'm not normally the superstition type - I break mirrors if I need more art supplies, I pet kitties black or otherwise, and I walk under ladders if they're tall enough for me to fit under - I'll not be answering that question.

     My dream job has always been an elusive concept for me. I still don't know what I want to be or do as far as a career. The highest education I have is two years of interior design/art school and an Associates of Arts degree in business, simply because I figured I could do most anything I wanted with the flexible business AA, and I didn't need to waste money going for a BA when I didn't know what I wanted to get it in.
     I have been thinking on it a good deal lately, since I started looking for another job, and I think I have an idea of what I'd like to go back for my BA in. Ole Miss offers a Liberal Arts degree that is basically a major of three minors. I know for sure that I would like to minor in history, business, and as for the third minor I'm torn between Spanish and English. I guess I could always make one of those my actual minor....but that would be weird. Liberal Studies major with a minor? So...four minors. Anyway, more thinking is required on that. It'll be a good while before I go back to school for anything, so I have plenty of time to decide.

     To answer my actual blog question, my dream job is something totally made up and is never going to happen. It's a 'dream' job, right? I would love to have some kind of hobby business like a professional organizer/decorator/house remodeler. I know there are people who do all of those things, but here in North Mississippi it's a limited market, especially the professional organizing haha. I'd love to just buy houses and flip them to sell. I'd love for people just to give me their keys and just say 'Make it pretty!' I'd even love to design houses; I actually loved designing and drawing out houseplans when I was in design school. Oh well, maybe someday when I marry that billionaire and he give me all the money I need to start my crazy business, I can come design all y'all's houses!

Fall Pinterest Projects

Happy fall y'all! At least by the rest of the general population. We've entered September, and I'm hoping the weather will take a hint from the calendar and give us a nice long fall season for once! Fall is my absolute favorite, what small time we get to see it here in Mississippi. I've been pinning fall decorations like crazy. I am so ready to wear sweaters and scarves and boots, to see the leaves change, to be able to decorate with pumpkins and pinecones and all those rich fall colors, to see little kids come trick-or-treating on Halloween and give them tons of candy, to watch football on the weekend...yeah, I'm excited, just a little :)

I used to love going to the pumpkin patch as a kid. I kind of wish I had a kid of my own, just so I could take him or her and sneak in on all the fun! 

On another note, isn't it odd/cool that pumpkins come in so many different shapes, sizes, colors, and textures? As a kid, I thought pumpkins were just roundish and orange, but nope, they even make blue ones and warty ones and stripey ones! 

I have found a ton of cute fall decor pins on Pinterest. Some I just think are cute and share-worthy, some I actually want to attempt. Here are the share-worthy ones. 

This one reminds me of my high school art teacher, Gail Morton

I'd love to be able to make one of these, but I have the feeling many many pinecones would have to make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of creativity before I even got close.

Cute little owl :)

The candles are cute, and they'd look good on a table if you were doing a sit-down dinner or something, but I imagine they'd take a lot of work to core out just so for your candles, and they'd probably get hot and mushy around the candle where it's hot.

Cute little pumpkin family. Maybe save this one for a later date.

Now, the pins I want to try:

I think these flowered pumpkins would look pretty on our front porch, on some hay bales maybe?

I want to try one or the other of these designs, either glittered pumpkins or mercury glass spray painted pumpkins.  

Haha. Vampire pumpkins!

For our Halloween candy, a ghost or Frankenstein bowl!

I don't know where I'd use this, but I just love the white mini pumpkins and the pinecones. It just looks so elegant and pretty and neat.

I would love to make a fall wreath for us; the one we currently are using is way way spring blossomy. I like the leaf one, but I need to find a lot of fake leaves first!

The medical personnel in my family got a kick out of the 'patient' mummy pumpkin.

We have a hurricane just this size, and I love the colors of the beans and corn together. Very rich, very fall.

Already got something very similar to this going. Just need Wal-Mart to get some mini-pumpkins in stock!

Hahaha this is my favorite one yet! Pumpkins hiding out in my kitchen. I need to hunt up some of my little dishes and cups so I can do this.

If I could find my mom some big lanterns so I could do this, she would be beside herself. I don't blame her, they're gorgeous. Guess I'll be stalking the clearances for a while!