Progress

Well, I made it to the gym and an hour later it was over and done. I'm proud of me for doing it, because it would have been so easy to just come home and nap. And yes, Blaez...I probably should have came home and took a nap. But I feel good about going and working out.

Of course my plan was then to come home and get my shit done so I could be in the bed before midnight. That didn't happen since I had to provide the team roster for soccer because our division is being audited. Of course all of the soccer stuff was piled in the papers on my dresser, which have been piling up for 10 months now. So this lead to me finally starting on that task. It isn't complete, but I certainly went through a lot of crap and got it tossed in to appropriate boxes. That also feels good! I'm almost certain that I should finally get this task off my to-do list within the next week!

Let the truth be told...

I am about 5 minutes away from leaving the office to drive directly to the gym. I am not going because I want to. I am not going because I promised myself. I am not going because I want to keep this up. I am not going because it is better for me. I am not going because I'm bored with nothing to do. Those would all be valid reasons to go, but that is not why I'm still committed to dragging my ass to the gym when I can hardly keep my eyes open at work today. I am going because I spent about $25 in songs @ Itunes last night and I want to listen to my Ipod. That is the only real reason that I have been able to convince my sorry lazy ass to still go to the gym today when I am so exhausted I'm making horrible mistakes at work and I've nodded off about 10 times while reading PR @ lunch today.

Obviously, this goal didn't happen. But I was an hour earlier than Sunday night....maybe tonight I'll make it in before midnight....

Very talkative

I just realized that this will be post #50 for me for the month of September. I am so sorry to have been so darn talkative this month. Some of the reasoning has been that I caught up several things that have been floating around for well over 6 months... I'll try and make October less "posty"! Since I'm averaging almost two a day, I'll really try sticking with just one a day next month...

A New Goal...

To get home a-sap from my memorex class, which I'm sitting in right now. What am I talking about you ask...Prof. D is Jewish and therefore he is home observing Yom Kippur, but alas...he didn't want to cancel our class so he video taped himself last week and that is what we are watching for our PR class. So I ask...Is it live or is it memorex?!? (Yes, I grew up in the 80's and loved it!)...and to go to bed a-sap. I think that is the only way I'm going to get my "life" back this week, because I'm feeling as worn out today as I do by the end week, so in order to prevent a great big crash I need to get some add't sleep....

Oh wait, I think Prof. D is about out of Memorex!!! Amen!!! The sooner the tape stops the sooner I am on my way home and on my way to bed.

A WW's Quickie Update

Today was the first day we actually weighed in for WWs @ work and I've lost another 2.5lbs! Hell yes!!! :D I'm so excited I practically jumped off that scales!! :) Even though it doesn't "count" for WWs because this was the initial weigh in, it counts big time for me. Ladies & gentlemen...that is a grand total loss of 23lbs!!! Yay me!!!! I know it will seem to move much slower now that I'll be weighing weekly, but it will be more accurate too...

Another late night

Thanks to Small Firms...ugh... I've been working on that class' homework since I got home from the aunt's b-day party around 5pm. Okay, I'll admit, I took a one hour nap too, but seriously?! That would have put me finishing at midnight instead of 1am! Ugh... The worst part is, I think I spent the majority of the time researching the wrong thing, so that was a waste of like 2 hours. Oh well, we have to prepare a time sheet and that wasted 2 hours went on there. Prof. L will probably take a look at my memo and presentation and be like, seriously you spent almost 6 hours on this?! Come on j'lynn...wtf?! LOL It is what it is!!

I'm not nearly where I want to be on my list. But again...it is what it is! This weekend I accomplished: 1, 2, 3 (same caveat still applies and my hodge-podge load is ready to go from the washer to the dryer before I turn in tonight!), 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 (I'm going to try and do #4 during my lunch breaks and when I get to school before classes, so I can still make the gym on Tuesday), 11 (as much as I could), and 12. My new plan is to do 13 and 14 once I'm done with 4 and hopefully work on #9 Tuesday after the gym...if I can move! LOL

Alright...off to get my crap ready for the morning and then to bed. Sweet dreams y'all...

What was she thinking?

My mother called me this morning at 9:40am today and woke me up with, "What did you want?" Hmmm...what I wanted was for you to answer your damn phone yesterday when I called you at 4:30pm or again at 9:00pm, not for you to call me on one of my only two mornings to sleep in when I didn't go to bed until after 3am! What I wanted was for you to sound a little more pleasant when you call me! What I want, is for you to get on meds for your undiagnosed bi-polar disorder!! Ugh....mothers... What I really wanted was to tell you that you need to call and invite auntie's house-mates to her b-day party today and ask you if you will trim my bangs since my hairstylist was already gone when I called him yesterday at 2pm. Most importantly, what I want is to be able to sleep in on my days off!

One good thing came of this rude-ass phone call, I got my ass out of bed, straight in to the shower, immediately dressed, started the BBQ pork for this afternoon and in to the car for my new signature drink...Double Dark Hot Chocolate, sugar & fat free of course!!! Yummy. Breakfast of champions I say!

Alright, off to read for Small Firms (I'm picking up where the drool left off!) so I can maybe put that class behind me before the party. Yes, my thoughts are delusional due to the fact that someone woke me up 6 hours after I went to sleep and I'm in a sugar-free, fat-free maze of chocolaty heaven...

Green living comes back as green money in my pocket

I have two salons that I frequent. A hair salon and a body salon. I could get almost everything done at one or the other, but I guess I've decided to play them off one another! My body salon is much more aggressive with their advertising and deals and things of that nature. Last month, they offered 15% a product for every hair, facial and body product empty bottle you brought in. I took in 3 and earned 45% off on products (3 products @ 15% off!). Well when they sent this month's email out they said it was so successful (15 product containers returned) they decided to do it for September too! Well, in the last week I returned 7 product containers (5 on Tuesday and 2 Saturday), so I earned a total of 105% off on products! I could make me a little killing if they keep this up...

One Productive Bitch!

That's me!!! :D

I'm sure you've all been dying to know how productive I have been in the last 28 hours, yes...it really is 2am Saturday night/Sunday morning. Well, let me tell you how productive I have been:

Accomplished: 1, 2, 3*, 5, 7, & 8.

Still left to do: 4, 6, 9, 10**, 11***, 12****, 13, & 14

The caveats are:

*I even went and picked up my munchkin's Friday uniform from my aunt while I was out running around Saturday afternoon so I could wash it! I wash his white shirts separate and his dress navy blue slacks separate from the rest of his clothes and I didn't want to wash 4 of each and have 1 of each left to do, so since I would be driving by her house I called and went and picked up uniform #5 and brought it home with me and washed it. However, I still have 2 out of 6 to fold and put away, but I consider this task accomplished! The only thing dirty in the house clothing wise is what I have on and the rag I used in the shower this morning!! One hodge-podge load will be tossed in Sunday night/Monday morning and that is just what the munchkin and I have worn for the weekend!

**This task cannot be accomplished until I finish #'s 4 and 6. No sense in planning a week out when I have homework, which will come first! So when I check off 4 and 6, I will check off 10 too!

***This really is a constant battle and really should be classified as a "get my shit together" type of task, but I attempted to get some serious sleep last night when I shut the light off next to my bed at 1:45am Friday night as I bored myself to sleep working on PR reading. The phone had other plans this morning...my man called me at 9am, which is fine because he can only call when the phone is free and trust me, I never get upset when my man calls me and I'm still in bed. (hehehe) After our 15 mins was up, I rolled over and went back to sleep only to be awakened again at 10am by a charity wanting my annual $10 donation, and again at 10:30am by the same charity verifying that I agreed to the $10 donation, and again at 11am Crazy A (my longest known friend). Crazy A did ask me if I was sleeping, if I wanted her to let me go and if I wanted to call her back...all of which I replied affirmative to. Of course I figured it was time to get my ass out of bed, so 10 mins later I called her back. And 2 hours later I finally hung up and got my ass in the shower because I had errands to run before I could work on my homework!

****This one isn't even scheduled for another 12 hours so it remains on my list, but I did pick up the BBQ Pork and Chips, along with 2 cards and a gift, so I feel like this one is half-way to being accomplished.

And since I've been working on #'s 5 & 7 for the last 8 hours, those are huge accomplishments in my world! Hell, I didn't even take a nap today or consider one....okay, I considered one at 5:30pm, but instead decided to start homework! If I had gotten one more item accomplished I would be half way through my list of things to do.

Hopefully you had a wonderful Saturday and did what you wanted to do and accomplished your goals too! Off to work on # 4 or 6 for a bit until I find myself drooling on my unread pages...

Happy Birthday Aunt!!

I just wanted to give a shout out to my uber awesome aunt (the one who sacrifices so much of herself so I can do all I do) and wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Way to go auntie, we love you so much and would be so lost without you! Hugs & Kisses to you!!!

Quest for productivity starts again

I'm sure these posts are boring for you guys and I apologize for that, but I find it so helpful to share my lists of things to do. I think it keeps me more task oriented. Yes, I know my lists seem repetitive, but that is my life...pretty repetitive.

So, here is my list for this weekend, so far, is:

1. Write out my shopping list (so I can do #2 on the list)

2. Go grocery shopping

3. Do laundry

4. Doing all of my PR homework

5. Doing all of my Litigation homework

6. Doing all of my Small Firms homework

7. Doing all of my Pre-Trial homework

8. Pay bills (so much fun I can hardly keep from doing that right this second!)

9. File my papers...you know exactly what I'm talking about by now! LOL

10. Plan out my week...I don't have any doctor's appointments (so far) and I want to get to the gym if I can and make a schedule that allows me a little more sleep during the week!

11. Get me some serious sleep...I think I might be a little sleep deprived.

12. Help celebrate my aunt's 63rd B-Day!!

13. Write my man...I'm about 5 envelopes behind again...damn him! LOL

14. Write my friend from high school as she wrote last

At least I was pretty productive at work today. Of course I worked from 8am until 7:45pm, so that helped some! And I would have gotten a ton more done, but I was very sleepy this afternoon too. I'm hoping I'm not coming down with something too, which could be adding to my exhaustion. That's all I need these days...

Of course my aunt had to rush my munchkin to the doctor's office after school today. He felt a little extra warm during the night when he crawled in to my bed, but he gives off a ton of heat normally. My man says he gets that from his momma. ;) And when we got up for school and work he said his throat hurt but only when he yawned and he wasn't warm anymore. I was really hoping that he had just slept really hard and his throat was dry. (Yes, I knew better, but I just couldn't face the need to take him to the doctor this morning. I know that makes me a crappy mom thou. :( ) When she picked him up from school he said he had a headache and his throat was hurting again and my aunt thought he felt a little warm by then. When I called the doctor's office to take him in the AM since I was 40 mins away and it was almost 5pm I was told they had no openings, but they could see him @ 5:15pm. Nice... Off they went... The munchkin has a throat infection starting, so on antibiotics he goes. Of course our pediatrician again complemented "mommy" with how early I catch the munchkin's sicknesses. At least he didn't know my gut was telling me like 10 hours earlier that we would end up there before the end of the day! Feel better my love...

Dilated Eyes Suck

This morning I had my eye appointment, which did not go as well as I hoped. Hell, it didn't even turn out a fraction of what I hoped. The appointment itself started out strange when I realized I was the person in the waiting room under the age of 60! YIKES!! Then I go through my appointment, which was fine, but my vision was a mess when it was over. I couldn't see anything, hardly. I have no idea how I drove home. I thought maybe if I put my contacts in it would help. I have no idea what I was thinking, because it did nothing. Then I thought maybe laying down for an hour would help. Now mind you...my anxiety is rising because I was hoping to be at work by 11am, plus I had to draft my discovery due at 6pm (that would be two sets of interrogatories and two sets of requests for production) and prepare to take a deposition tonight in class too! Ugh. Well, laying down didn't help either...

As the clock ticked to almost noon I called my boss to tell her I was still at home blinded! I hoped to be able to come in in a couple hours, but at this point I wasn't hopeful since I still couldn't see clearly with distance and up close to work on a computer or read something...please...it was useless! My eyes didn't really begin to clear up until closer to 3pm. At this point it was too late to try and make it to work, plus I still had my homework to do! So I opted to do my homework and then rush off to school so I could prep for my dep.

Of course I hate the fact that I've missed 2.5 days of work this week. Ugh... Even when I have thoughts of wanting to not work or to call in for the day, in the end I feel bad. I feel bad when I don't go to work. I'm not sure why. I guess when I don't really have my stuff together and have a long term plan to miss work, I feel guilty.

I feel like crap over the fact that I was working on homework that was due in 2 hours. What is wrong with me?!? I hate the pressure, the feeling of anxiety and the throwing together of an assignment isn't what I want. Especially after you email it and turn it in and then you are driving to class thinking of where you messed up and what you really should have asked or what you wanted to ask when you first started to think about this assignment weeks ago, that totally fell out of my throbbing head while I was blinded by light for several hours. Then I get upset with myself. Of course the fact that I received two assignments back last night in Small Firms with less then stellar grades on it, doesn't help either. Yes, Prof. L told us that everyone's grades were low, but for me the anal overachiever I once was rears its ugly head and I become disappointed with myself.

The bright spot was my deposition tonight. I actually enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. If we had unlimited time I would have so loved it. There were several areas that I failed to follow up on, but I do find it difficult when you are interviewing a fake opponent and I hope that with practice and experience a person only gets better at it! I thought about the dep all the way home and thought of tons of additional questions I wanted to ask if I wouldn't have been cut short and the varies different follow up questions I failed to follow up on. I wonder if this is normal? Of course in a real case, I'm assuming a second set of interrogatories and requests for production could be filed and it would help the areas I wish I would have followed up on. But I do find myself excited over this...which I must say it is really the first time I've found myself excited about the future prospect of doing this for real!! :)

My last problem for the day, I promise! LOL Apparently I am unable to get to bed any earlier than 2am practically every night this week. This is not really helping my stress or me looking tired. I definitely need to fix this starting next week or else something major is going to go very wrong...

TGTIF...

So it has started again.

The freak-out that is. Our tentative schedule for next Term came out a couple weeks ago. Of course there are few classes offered. But a class I've wanted to take for four years is about to be offered. My aunt knows a lady who just returned from practicing law at the Vatican. She is uber excited to be considered to teach Canon Law for us and I'm excited to take it too. So one of the many deans came outside tonight to ask me if I would be able to take a 4pm class with her because she doesn't want to drive in the winter the 40 miles from our town to school. I could so do a 4pm class with my work's permission,which shouldn't be hard to get! So he is going to see if she can do a 4-5:50pm class one night next semester. He asked me to email him to let him know that so he can shoot back any tentative class days/times to me to see if it is workable. I guess it pays to have brought the teacher to the school....hehe

Of course on a side note, now it is figuring out the rest of my schedule. I'm thinking SADO (a clinic), a trial practice class and maybe one more...depending on the number of credits everything is worth next semester. Also, depending on if we can piss someone off enough to put an interesting seminar at night since that is a requirement too....ugh...the stress. Why do they make it so difficult for me?!

Okay, I'm about off to bed...I just want to watch the last 10 minutes of Jax...er...I mean, Sons of Anarchy. ;)

Just another hump day

I am happy to report that I was able to get out of bed this morning and I was fine. I was a little nervous that I wouldn't be able to get out of the bed since I was hurting last night. I guess I will have to go more frequently so I'm not so sore in the future...LOL I thought it sounded good!!

Went to the orthopedic surgeon this morning, again. For the last 2 weeks my wrist has been hurting really bad and I was afraid the cyst had came back and was worse. It was really bad at the beginning because I could hardly write my name let alone take notes in class. Of course after I had made today's appointment my wrist started to feel a bit better, but it is still swelled, tender and hurts. The doctor said he can't feel anything in there and he suspects that there may be a little cyst in the joint working its way out and hopefully it will surface or go away...only time will tell. I go back in a month to see how things are.

Tomorrow morning I go to the eye doctor to get a dilated eye exam. I've never had one and I'm hoping and praying that I have no complications and can go on to work right after the appointment. Keep your fingers crossed!

I am happy to report that I moved #9 to the accomplished list.

My master bath has double doors, but I keep the one to the left always closed. We have ever since we moved in. Well, obviously my massage and my motrin allowed me to get into a deep sleep last night, because when I woke up to use the restroom I walked right into the closed door. Ouch!! Then I ended up sleeping until 7am, which was not my plan. I went from home to the doctor's office where of course the doctor was running super late. Then I swung by a pizza place where my doctor is, picked up an antipasto salad (which is always delicious from there) and attempted to make my way to work. After sitting in the parking lot on the expressway because a semi lost the backhoe it was carrying, I finally made it to the office at 12:15pm. After a couple hours, I ended up with a killer headache, felt like I wasn't accomplishing anything at work and wishing I was back home, preferably sleeping!

I, of course, was tired today, which is no different than any other day. What was different, was when my boss' boss came in to my office and told me I looked tired. Nice! That is what a girl always wants to hear... Then during PR I almost feel asleep, literally. It is a boring ass class and I am tired, which is a bad combination. Two more days of work to go, one more night of classes.

I am happy to look at my calendar for this weekend and realize that the only thing outside of homework that I have to do this weekend is to celebrate my aunt's 63rd B-Day! That should help me get some of my shit done and some sleeping in! Woo-hoo!!

Suspense

I'm sure you are all waiting in suspense to see how I'm coming on my list of things to do, right?

Let's see...

Accomplished: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, & 14

Still on the list: 6, 9, 10, 12, & 13

How many will be added to this week/weekend's to do list? too many to count.......

This is even with having "food poisoning" Tuesday and the inability to go to work and having to stay home and work on 12 and 13....

Pampering gone wrong??

Did my pampering go wrong or is this my first real experience with a deep tissue massage? I am incredibly sore. Like...can barely stand and walk sore. Like I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get off the table when she was done. Please please please tell me this will be better in the morning....

BTW, I have to admit I'm kind of digging the fact that there is a show on with a lawyer who has a hubby in prison! LMFAO Who knew that would ever happen, huh? Guess this soon-to-be lawyer with her man in prison will have to be very supportive of The Good Wife!! ;)

Okay, 800mgs of Motrin later, I'm off to bed now...hopefully I will be able to get up in the morning and out of bed.

The things we see and do in one day

Today I observed a few things that I wanted to share with all of you:

1. When you need a walker while you get around at work, you can and should use the handicap stall instead of parking your walker outside the stall door. I find it ironic at my office that the people who are truly handicapped (one on a walker, one on a cane) never use the handicap stall, but the fat chicks (yes, I can say that because I'm fat and a chick) use it instead (but I don't do that)!

2. When there are only two people in the bathroom at work and one has a walker parked outside her stall and you don't need any walking assistance devices, who does the cane outside the bathroom door belong too??!!??

3. Is it too much to ask that the areas outside all bathroom doors and stall doors be declared a non-parking zone in my office?!

4. A man with a piece of tape on the back of his head could be covering up a wound or else it could just be a piece of masking tape going across the bottom of his hair line with writing on it. I didn't get close enough to see what it said though...sorry.

5. When you are rushing out of your office over 30 mins late praying that the store in your building will still be open so you can get a water to go to school and skip going to the bathroom, the store will have closed on time and you will have to sneak in to the restaurant on the bottom floor's bathroom.

6. All women who run WW meetings are a bit off their rockers!

7. When you buy a pair of knee-highs at the little store in your work building at noon, the guy behind the counter probably thinks you have gotten in trouble for failing to wear socks at work. What he doesn't know is that you are preparing to weigh in for WWs, which won't happen until next Monday....oh, the humanity!

8. When you find yourself on the wrong floor for your class with only 6 minutes before class starts, the person getting off the elevator will be someone who wants to give you a hug, chit-chat and will say, "Do you have a 6 o'clock class? Oh, it doesn't matter...give me a hug. How are you doing?"

I'm sure there were more, but I cannot remember them...probably because I'm laughing to myself at the craziness I experienced in one day!

Need Help Going Green

Okay, I will admit, I am not the "greenest" person on the planet and I'm slow to come on board. However, now that I feel embarrassed at grocery stores when I haul my plastic bags out to the car I feel it is time to go green in this area. My son, who has singlehandedly started recycling in our home, will be so uber proud of his momma!

But I need your help...I am looking for reusable shopping bags. Yes, I know I could purchase the blue ones at Meijers for $0.99 (I think) and that would be fine with me. But I saw some young couple (my god, how old am I really?!?) in front of me a couple weeks ago at Meijers and they had the coolest reusable shopping bags. I couldn't even tell you what color or if there was a design on them. What made them so cool, you ask. Well, they snapped up in to this neat little square when they aren't in use.

So what I am looking for is (cheap) reusable shopping bags that fold in to a nice little neat square and snap in to place. Do you know anything like this? Can anyone help me go green in this area? Maybe you know something better! Please share any and all advice with reusable shopping bags that don't take up too much of my (very) limited space when they aren't in use! It would be wonderfully appreciated!!

Productivity isn't as high as I would like

so far this weekend, but as for my list of things to do I've accomplished #'s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and am almost done with #7 and #10. I attempted #14 in the shower Saturday morning, but my razor was toast and I didn't find it necessitated a wet, cold trip across the bathroom to open the package of a new razor and blades. Which ended up being a good decision since it took me 10 minutes and a pair of scissors to open the package after I was out and dressed!

I'm about half way done and still have Sunday to accomplish the rest. Now if only I get it all done it will be a miracle! Wish me luck!!!

Even though #11 is due at 3pm tomorrow and I haven't even started it, I'm about to call it a night. I'm pretty tired after incoming emails on my crackberry kept waking me up last night. On top of that, I've been "to town" three times today. Apparently I agree with Bernake (is he a secretary or a director?) that the recession is over at the rate I drove in to town today!

Finally...Pictures of the New Car & I Still Love It!!

Yes, I was taking these in the Wal-Green's parking lot after the car wash...hehe

Pictures @ our summer of fairs

Enjoying some rides @ the State Fair...no pictures of the death trap...sorry!

The munchkin riding some rides @ the county fair...

Monster trucks @ the county fair....

How my seedling has grown

As promised here... Can you believe it?!

I put it in this vase that was given to me by a very dear friend. I found it fitting, because unbeknownst to my dear friend my family's symbol for my Nana is the dragonfly. She couldn't have done it better and to now have my munchkin's seedling growing in here just makes it even more dear to my heart. Thanks MP! Thanks munchkin! I love you both!!

Here is the handprints that my munchkin made me for Mother's Day...I love it and need to frame it. It makes me cry every time I read it.

In case you can't read it, it says:

My Hands

Sometimes you get discouraged

Because I am so small;

You find my fingerprints on

Doors, sills, and walls.

But now I am getting bigger

And soon I'll be so tall,

You'll find the little fingerprints

Hard to recall.

Love, your munchkin

It wasn't worth it...

My trip to the new Super Wal-Marts was not worth the drive. It started out bad from the start. They only accepted half of my returnables. Apparently Squirt & Diet Sunkist are not worthy of Wal-Marts. So then I walk in the door and the greeter wants to know if I have a return. Um, no...just the bottles you guys won't take. He could have cared less about my pain at that point.

Shockingly, I am very picky about my grocery shopping. I like to pick out my own Red Delicious apples...not an option here. It was a bag and that was it. They didn't care the carrots like I get at Meijers so I settled for baby carrots to take with me...whatev. They also didn't have my bottled water. I take Fuji to work with me because I can easily measure the fact that I have drank 32ozs of water with one bottle, plus it tastes super good! It took like 5 minutes to find Selsun Blue shampoo, because it wasn't with the regular shampoo. And who puts shampoo on one side of the isle and conditioner on the other side?? Quoting my man Eminem here, How fucked up is you? As far as my munchkin's shampoo...I never did find it, but I think I also forgot about it. I had already determined that I was going to have to make a run to Meijers when I discovered they didn't carry my water...

So on to Meijers I went to get water and return the rest of my cans...from there I went to Wal-Greens to pick up my pictures. I had already kind of figured out that my 50% coupon didn't apply to instore coupons, but the dude with the now blonde (last time I saw him it was green) 7" mohawk gave it to me anyways, which was great because that was a $35.13 savings. I must have had a fearful look on my face when I was apologizing for being too dumb to read the fine print, because he told me not to worry about it. It wasn't something he would lose his job over. Good to know since he is the only one there that really knows what he is doing.

Then back home. Since all I had ate since my lunch at 1:30pm, which was a homemade taco salad, was a small order of mini-tacos from my local drive-in @ 7pm I decided I needed to eat so I ordered me some pizza and sat down to do some blogging because I've got some long over due pictures to show y'all!

Okay...I'm going to do it

I'm going to venture to the new Super Walmart right now to do my grocery shopping. It had its grand-opening on Wednesday and I actually swore I wasn't going to go to the store until at least February. But I haven't done my grocery shopping yet today and since it is almost 9pm, I think it will be okay to venture in. Of course I hate going somewhere new where I don't know where anything is...talk about feeling inept when you have to ask where something is and it is like 2 feet in front of you. (Sorry teenage store worker to have disturbed your loading of shelves to ask such a stupid question!) Plus it doesn't help that I'm not a shopper. I just don't get in to shopping. I don't think I will ever be "lost" in a store for hours just because I was "looking around". It just isn't me. I like to get in, get on, get out. Fast and simple! (Yes, I'm only talking about shopping!)

So please wish me luck and if you don't hear from me in a few hours, please phone a friend...she may be packed inside the new Super Walmart grocery isles and can't figure her way out!

Goals

I have set several goals for this weekend. I sort of need (personally) this weekend to be very productive, even though I feel like crawling in to bed for the next 48 hours. Here is my list of goals:

1. Write out my shopping list (so I can do #2 on the list)
2. Go grocery shopping
3. Wash my car (so I can do #3 on the list)
4. Take pics of my car (both to post on here since I've been talking about it for 3 months & to send to my man because I've been promising them for 3 months now)
5. Get my pics developed b/c I have a coupon for 50% off and I currently have 163 pics to develop. It pays for the 2nd set of prints I always get so I can send them to my man.
6. File my papers, which I've been talking about doing forever now.
7. Do laundry
8. Organizing my school stuff (which is always a work in progress)
9. Follow up on a missing copy of a Sports Illustrated NFL Preview that my guy didn't get
10. Doing all of my PR homework
11. Doing all of my Litigation homework
12. Doing all of my Small Firms homework
13. Doing all of my Pre-Trial homework (do you see a trend here?!)
14. Shave so I'm ready for my massage on Tuesday (I can't frickin' wait!!)

Obviously not the longest list of things to do I've had, but still I find it a little over whelming for less than 48 hours once you include some sleeping in there.

Oh yeah...I need to call the woman I complained to about this. Especially since she told me yesterday she would call me back by the end of the day. Maybe her day didn't finish yet, but mine sure did. I also need to figure out my new crackberry. For some reason, even though I have the email notifications on "silent" it is dinging when I get one...I need simple things, not complicated things these days. Any advice here is greatly appreciated...

Crackberry is mine...

I have finally joined the distinguished addicts of blackberry owners! I picked up my new phone tonight after I snuck out of our firm picnic at 3pm. :D I still have no idea what I'm doing with it...but so far, so good! Of course now I need to charge this bad boy...I hate that first "night" of charging. Ugh...takes too long.

My Dark Knight

If you read my comments here, you will discover that I finally found my Dark Chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I ate it after breakfast while wallowing in my despair of Ecology Day. I shall report that it was all I dreamed of, which is dangerous, but I am happy to report that I didn't crave another one when I was done! I actually didn't even think about it later on. Wish is huge for me!!! But if you like dark chocolate & peanut butter and want to treat yourself, I say this is something to look for and enjoy... :)

Ecology Day

This is something that my company does once a year in September. It is to allow you to clean up and clean out work areas. I love this day every year, because I get to wear jeans, a tee-shirt, my sandals and clean up my office. I get to wipe stuff down, dust things off, reorganize what needs to be reorganize, etc...

Well, when I got a rush first thing this morning from our CS and I made contact with my boss about the fact that the rush was forthcoming I was admonished when she implied I could handle it and then said, "I need an Ecology Day more than you do." Well, well, well... Now do not get me wrong, I actually love my boss. She is pretty awesome. But after looking forward to today for a year I felt like she sucked the life out of me. :( I handled the rush and then there was another, and another, and another.

How much "Ecology" Day did I get to enjoy? NONE! I never even got to wipe anything down, let alone reorganize and become refreshed. I was so sadden and a bite upset. I know I have a lot of work to do and we are only there for 4 hours tomorrow before we go for our annual firm picnic. The only clean up I did was on my email in-box, which is part of my normal workday.

On top of all of this, about 2.5 hours in to my work day I received an email from MyMormonGirl asking if I received her text. I told her I hadn't and when I checked my phone it shut itself off since I had hung up from my aunt 2 hours earlier. This is exactly how it started with the last 3 phones I've had since December 2007!! I've so had it with my LG phones and will NEVER buy another one! Ugh. Of course during the 2 hours my phone was shut off my man called and I missed it...ugh... Needless to say, I am looking at making a trip to the cell phone store this weekend to get my crackberry.

So needless to say...my Ecology Day blew from go! :( I felt so blah that even when my guy called a few hours later I was in such a funk that he apologized to me for me being in such a shitty mood. Nice, huh?! Ugh...

My mood did not improve when I got to school and realized that I had left my folder (which held the assignments I had to turn in @ 6pm) for Pre-Trial on my desk at work. I had time but I was not about to hop back in my car and go back to get it. I reprinted my assignments and went on to class.

The bright spot of my day~~dinner w/my LSBFF! Boy oh boy...I needed that! I had a great time eating chips & salsa and chatting for a few hours. Thank you LSBFF!! :D

TGIF~tomorrow!!!!

Crazy Day Will Give You A Hodge-Podge Post Y'all!

Well, being the naughty girl that I am (Blaez!) I began working on my paper about 9am this morning and finished at 4pm this afternoon. I turned it in @ 6pm! One down.... Thank goodness that is over! Now I just wait for the horrible grade to come in.

Then in Small Firms we were given 4 assignments due next Wednesday...are you f'g killing me?!? I have to draft 2 motions to suppress and re-do 2 of my prior assignments. Ugh. Plus for Litigation I have to draft another complaint! For PR I have to read a chapter and several rules in connection with that chapter. For Pre-Trial tomorrow night we will receive the assignment of drafting discovery requests (Interrogs & R4P of Docs). Guess where I will be all weekend.

In case you didn't know, I have a bit of a TV obsession (see to the right my list of current shows that are programmed into my TIVO to grab every week) and in these few weeks all of the network TV shows are premiering for the fall! Very exciting. I had kind of made a deal with myself that I would only add 2 new shows to replace the few that aren't returning. I had decided to add NCIS: Los Angeles and The Good Wife. Then my man got me hooked on Sons of Anarchy (I'm 2 shows in and totally addicted already!! Jax is so f'g hot!!! LOL) and I just received an email tonight to watch the Pilot for Modern Family, which I watched and it is so funny!!! It has passed my test and will be added too. Damn it for all of the good shows coming on....

My latest "news" obsession has became Haleigh Cummings, the missing girl from Florida so I have to sit up and watch the re-run of Nancy Grace @ 1am to see the latest...

I know you are just dying to know what I had for dinner tonight, right? haha Of course I picked up my Turkey-Bacon Wrap and hauled it with me to class. I decided I would eat between my two classes and I was so looking forward to it since I haven't had it in what feels like a week or two! I ate the first half quickly since I only had 5 minutes to eat and I noticed that something was missing. So I started to eat the 2nd half and discovered totally what was missing...THE BACON!! How the hell do you make a "Turkey-Bacon Wrap" without the 2nd named ingredient? Ugh... I knew this day was going to suck when I put my several bags in the car and realized the top to my water bottle had popped open and was spilling in the side pocket of my work bag and spilled on to my backseat. Thank goodness I noticed it before it got worse...but I should have just came back inside, called in to work and went back to bed! I hate it when I know from the start my whole day is going to suck...

Hopefully you could follow my hodge-podge post tonight. I'm exhausted and my brain is all over the map. Can you tell I'm overloaded, once again?! Have a great Thursday. I should...it is Ecology Day @ work tomorrow! Woo-hoo...I've been waiting for this day forever. I'll tell you all about Ecology Day tomorrow! I have classified it as a Holiday! LOL

PS: I'm doing dinner with my LSBFF tomorrow night & I cannot wait!!! Chips & Salsa will likely be on the menu, but I guess I should check with her, huh? It seems like forever since we've done dinner. Well, we've done it since the post I linked to her, but it feels like it has been since March! Woo-Hoo!!!!!

Avoidance

is my middle name....as I sit here watching the 11 o'clock news without my paper wrote for tomorrow night. Things I did to avoid writing it: fixed dinner, ate dinner, caught up on email, put dinner away, staring mindlessly at the TV, watching SAMCRO a/k/a SOA...now I'm going to go to bed instead, because I'm totally exhausted. Yes, I am playing with fire...I'll close my door at work tomorrow and attempt to fake it while I make it!

R.I.P.

Jimmy was laid to rest today with a grave side service only this afternoon. He is so loved by family and friends and will be missed every single day. I would like to report that the killer has been caught and arrested. He will be extradited to our home town for trial. I am sadden to report that the chances of the killer eventually going to prison in his own horrific life was 95% since his biological mother was just released from doing 6 years in prison, the woman who raised him while his biological mother was incarcerated is currently in prison and his brother is also in prison. The worst thing is that he had to take a beautiful person like Jimmy before he made his way to the slammer for life....

Patrick Swayze lost his battle with pancreatic cancer today. He has fought hard for the last 2 years and I hope he is no longer in pain. I pray for his family and friends, especially his child-hood sweetheart, his wife Lisa...

So many losses remind me every day that life really is a blessing and is too short to waste a single minute...

Specialist Speaks...

So this morning I went to work with only one thing left to do homework wise, but of course that is to write my paper for my PR class. Since it is due Wednesday @ 6pm, guess I'll be spending my "free" night tomorrow night writing my paper, huh?! Anywho...off to work I went for 1.5 hours and then I left to go to see the Endocrinologist @ 11am. If you want to meet a serious doctor, go see an Endocrinologist (a/k/a Diabetic Specialist)!!

She gave me some new things to follow. She took me off my night time pills, which still cause me problems even though I'm only taking 1/4th of a regular dose! She said I was getting such a small dose that it really wasn't worth me taking it and continuing to have to take myself off every 14 days for 2-3 days while my digestive system fixes itself. (Woo-hoo!). She also changed when I check my #'s because she thinks my numbers aren't being accurately reflected. Which means she thinks my numbers may still be higher then what they are showing. :( Some days she wants me to test 4 times a day and the others 2 times a day. She also asked me to fax her my numbers every 2 weeks so she can adjust my meds as needed until we get me completely undercontrol! :)

The best news of the entire visit was when I first got in there and they weighed me and I was down another 6.7lbs!!! That brings my total lose to 20.5lbs!!! I'm so frickin' excited!! I cannot even put it in to words as to how excited I am. Of course I don't feel it, I don't see it, but whatever 'cause the scale says it is true and that is all that matters to me!!!!!!!!!!! :D Can you frickin' believe it?! I still can't! Yes, I've been battling this for a very long time and this was one of my goals when I started this blog back on 2/8/09 and 7+ months later I probably should have lost more, but hey...I will take what I've been given for, thank god for it, pat myself on the back, and be happy! I will also shout from the rooftops that I, j'lynn, have lost 20.5lbs!!!!! Yay me!!

Alright, I went back to work, grabbed a grilled chicken Greek salad and actually did some work for a change. hehe Then on to class and on to home to get ready to do this all again tomorrow. Since I've been home I've gotten caught up on my Soccer Mom duties, emailed the munchkin's teacher since someone else took his book bag home, and participated in a recipe exchange. Now I'm off to wash my face and get my ass to bed...hey, I've got a paper to write tomorrow!

Church Festivals are more dangerous than fairs...

for this diabetic! YIKES!!

Well, I'm sure the whole day played in to part of it! Friday night out of exhaustion, and probably a few other things, I ordered pizza from this dangerous place. Of course there were left overs so since I was up early and took my first pill that you have to eat w/i 30 mins of taking I had some left over pizza (it was yummy!) then late morning we met up for breakfast and I enjoyed some buttermilk pancakes w/sugar-free syrup and some sausage links with water, of course! Then after soccer pictures, I came home with the plan to meet up with my munchkin and my aunt later at our Church Festival.

Mid-afternoon I indulged in the rest of the left over pizza and a small bowl of my no-added-sugar ice cream since we weren't meeting up until about 7pm. Oh yeah, there was a diet root beer in there too! Then about 7:30pm we had dinner at the festival. That consisted of a hodge-podge of things. It included some pierogis (w/sour cream, of course!), a kielbasa (w/o the sauerkraut) on a bun, a couple bites of the inside of a taco and a diet coke. Well, let me tell you...I can no longer say my numbers haven't been over 200 since July...

Who knew I would be in more trouble going to my church festival than I was going to two different fairs!

**No, we are not Polish and we do not go to a Polish Catholic Church, we actually attend a very Italian and Mexican Catholic Church...but apparently they like Polish food over Italian food!

**Yes, I only go there to eat...we were there from 7pm until 9pm and I ate ALL OF THAT! The munchkin bounced on the bouncy houses and ate a hotdog and most of that taco, along with some onion rings!

**Yes, we do allow my aunt to eat. Since she is a Catholic Nun, she gets first dibs but settled on a kielbasa w/sauerkraut and onion rings. I don't remember now, but I thought she got some fries too, but maybe I'm just imagining things! There was a money mix-up, which caused great laughter and has altered my memories of dinner.

**The great money mix-up was the girl under charged me $5 when I got my dinner and the munchkin's dinner. My aunt thought they over charged me, so when she told the person she knew in the food tent about it the woman gave her $5 to make it right over my aunt's loud protests. When she came back to tell me she had my $5 for me, I couldn't understand why...needless to say after several bouts of laughter and finishing our meals, we took $10 back to the food tent and explained the entire mix-up. It isn't great karma to take $10 from a church festival....

Reform this

As I'm sure you are all aware that we are in the midst of a huge debate over health care reform as a nation. Well, I have a suggestion for President Obama...reform my health care's diabetic supply stupidity!

When I was first diagnosed my aunt purchased me a Contour system. I wasn't sure if I liked it but she said she had a connection to supplies and because we thought we had to pay out of pocket, and at a $1 a test strip, I was happy with that! Well, of course she has access to a different Contour system's supplies and it didn't work with my system! So she brought me her Contour TS system to use strips that were set to expire soon. Yes, who knew that those strips actually expire!!

Then when I went to the diabetic nurse she told me that my supplies should be covered under my durable medical equipment portion of my healthcare insurance versus my prescription coverage. So I set that up and went to the pharmacy I was assigned to and picked up my third system, an Accu-Chek Aviva. I definitely am not a fan of the tester but have fell in love with the part that holds the lancet and stabs me. It was so much nicer, easier, and less painful than the ones that came with the Contour systems (both of them).

So this past week I needed more lancets, because I didn't get them the day I picked up the Aviva, because I didn't need them. So what am I told when I pick them up?!? My insurance won't pay for the lancets that go with the Aviva, even though they would only pay for the Aviva machine and will only pay for the Aviva test strips. WTF?!? Are you kidding me? So now I have to figure out a way to carry the Contour lancet system with my Aviva machine and test strips. Nice...because none of the carrying cases hold them both! Ugh....

Could someone please tell me the reasoning behind this stupidity? You give me a machine and I can only use half of it. Apparently they forgot that stress isn't good for diabetics! Dumb-asses!!

Now I'm off to get ready to meet the munchkin and the aunt for breakfast @ I-HOP! It will be our first time there and since my munchkin loves pancakes we thought he would love I-HOP. :) Then on to soccer pictures and I come back home for homework! Fun, fun, fun!! :D

Enjoy your Saturday!

9/11

Eight years ago, our lives changed forever. I remember I was at my desk when my man called to tell me what was going on. I thought he was lying...I couldn't believe that what he was telling me could really be happening. I remember my dick of a boss that made me bring my almost 3 year old step-son up stairs when his daycare closed to "sit quietly" while I continued to work. (Yeah, that was successful!) I remember the two of us getting home and once he was in bed, all I wanted to do was curl up on the couch with my man to feel safe, because that entire day and for several days there after I didn't feel safe except for when we were home together as a family...

Eight years later when I see the pictures, the reports, and the videos from that day I still get tears in my eyes, a lump in my throat and feel my heart breaking as if it was just yesterday. God Bless those people who lost their lives eight years ago today, their family, and the people who helped save the people that could be saved. God Bless our men and women who have stepped up to continue to protect us from harm in the future. And God Bless the USA...

Talk About Spicing Things Up!!

Every day this week I've been highly frustrated at work. I'm behind in every area, I'm pissed that I'm getting crap pilled on me, we are constantly being told that we need to reduce expenses (yes, that includes buy your own pens when we run out of office supplies...nice Mr. VP!), and I'm not motivated to do anything! Then to top it off I had an attorney call me today to tell me that a former defendant of ours has grieved her. Um...how is this my problem?!? I didn't even have this file when she did...ugh...

Then my phone rang and it was my man. :) The last few days he has been exhausted and so have I so that leads to low key conversations, which is okay. But today he was full of spark and some spice! Nothing spices a day up than a naughty phone call from your man!! And boy oh boy...was he naughty! giggles I smiled and blushed the rest of the day! Of course when it started to pop in to my exhausted brain while I was "interviewing" my client during PreTrial Lit I had to usher it out quickly! Boy oh boy...that could have been horrible while I was interviewing my 70 year old client! LOL

Thank God tomorrow is Friday! Of course I'm overloaded with homework and too many things to do. Soccer practice tomorrow night, which I will bow out of (thank God for my aunt!); soccer pictures Saturday morning and maybe doing breakfast at IHOP together; and a possible trip to our church festival. Damn...I think I need weekends from my weekends y'all!!

Tragedy Strikes

This morning my aunt called to tell me that a friend of ours' son was found murdered this morning. He was stabbed to death and found in his home by his father. Originally it was revealed that his large screen TV was also missing, which lead to my aunt to think that this was a robbery gone bad; however, I told her that stabbings are usually a crime of passion and I believed that he may have known his killer. It was later determined (and reported) that there was no forced entry and his car was missing. I cannot imagine what our friend must be going through as this was her only child. I pray for her, his father, his family and friends and hope that God gives them the strength to carry on.

RIP Jimmy...you are loved and will be missed.

Happy Labor Day!

This is it...the last unofficial weekend of summer! I hope everyone has the opportunity to get out there for one last cookout and enjoy themselves today! :)

I on the other hand am cooped-up in the house, at my computer, doing homework. I stayed up until 4am last night (technically this morning) working on drafting a complaint for Pre-Trial Lit, which is due Thursday. I seem to be working backwards with my due dates, but I had a feeling that this was going to be my most difficult drafted pleading and so far it has lived up to those expectations. I think I just need to fine tune it, draft my summons, draft my cover sheet and draft a corporate interest disclosure statement and then prepare for a client interview and then I have one class done! Have mercy...

I was a little disappointed when I looked out and we have grey skies and some raindrops falling, but I guess it helps me feel less like wanting to have a cook-out and less guilty for denying my son the opportunity to come home and play on his new swing-set. Of course I am really disappointed in the fact that since I didn't step up and plan a family gathering, it didn't happen, because no one else in my family planned one. I have often suspected that if I didn't plan a holiday gathering one wouldn't happen and they are proving me correct. Bad family...I guess I sort of expected my bro to step-up, but he didn't. C'est la vie!

Anyways...off to homework!! Happy Labor Day y'all!!

Roses and seedlings...I love them!!!

Here are my beautiful roses from my munchkin for Mother's Day. I loved them! I'm only boring you with 3 pics, even though I think I took 20+

Enjoy the beauty...

This is my seed plant that my munchkin raised at school and brought home to me for Mother's Day. You wouldn't even recognize it now. I'll try posting updated pictures of it soon.

But I loved this little plant and so did he!

You may be wondering where the hand poster went...well, I have to take a different picture of it because the one I took has identifying information on it. So hopefully I'll get that back soon and posted, along with the updated pics of the seed-plant.

And since I just looked and between the 2 fairs I have over 155 photos taken, I better get a move on, huh?!

Hope you have enjoyed our picture day today!

As we move from baseball back to soccer...

Let us remember our baseball filled summer...

Bye-bye dinos...hopefully you will be back next year.

Since tomorrow is 9/7 and we never did make it back to the zoo to go on the dino simulator or to get more pictures after my camera died, I figured I better post what we have thus far. Enjoy...

Pictures for those Trekkies...

Many many moons ago, we went to the Science Center...here are some pictures of that trip as well...

Now that is a cupcake...

My munchkin gave out cupcakes for his b-day at school and at soccer this year. Of course he wanted one the day of his birthday and he couldn't have one separate, so I agreed to let him pick out one cupcake the morning of his birthday when we went to get his cake.

This is his "one" cupcake.

Next time I'll be more specific that the cupcake has to be smaller than the birthday cakes!!

A long time in the making...

Since my munchkin turned 7 months ago and I'm so far behind on posting pictures, let me remind you of those times here and now on to the pictures. Enjoy....

Party #1...

We love you Chuck E. Cheese!! Thanks for a wonderful Birthday Party!!

On to party #2...