words of encouragement

Everyone loves to hear words of encouragement when your having moments in your life where things are spiraling out of control.

My BFF "Kat" always seems to know exactly what to say & always has the perfect timing too.  I guess that's how things work after you've known someone your entire life & been as close as we've been.

Someone who knows you almost better then you know yourself.

Someone who you know without a doubt or a blink of an eye they're always right beside you through what ever you are dealing with throughout life... bad times and good times.

I would say it's like taking vows for marriage in a way... til death do us part... but that's just simply not true.
Our friendship won't end because of death, our friendship will continue on in Heaven as well.

Kat... thank you for just being you & for your encouraging words at always the most perfect times throughout my life.  I honestly don't know what I would do without you.  I'm honored to have such a wonderful friend by my side & I love you.

Katie Opal is here

Monday, April 19th - Katie Opal is officially here now - 7lbs 1oz!
Our little bundle of joy.

And seriously, isn't she just the cutest thing in the world!
YEAH I'M A PROUD NEW GREAT-AUNT ALL OVER AGAIN.

I just can't help it.  Gotta brag & share it w/everyone.

1st week down

Well I officially completed my first week at my new job last Friday.  So far so good.  Last Tuesday I got my computer, got all my passwords & all that good stuff.  Wednesday thru Friday I spent working with Dawn learning the ropes of the systems, but it didn't take me long to catch on.  I spent some time on my computer playing around in the programs myself.  I'm one of those people that once I do it myself I've usually got it.

My new office furniture arrived Friday, but it still has to be assembled & that will have to be scheduled.  Hopefully soon, so I can get settled in & get my office arranged like I want, so I can start digging in & getting to work.  I'm ready, I'm more than ready!

I was nervous at first.  Leaving one job for another is always a little shaky & I was a little nervous about starting over again, but after completing my first day I felt 100% better & was confident this is where I belong & I made the right decision.

Everyone is so nice there & has been amazing to work with so far.  I felt like I fit in from the moment I walked thru the door.  That's a great feeling to have starting a new job.

Last Thursday I met my bff Kat to eat dinner, which was nice.  We're trying to meet for dinner at least once a month, to spend some time together.  I rarely ever get out of the house & hang out with friends, so I enjoy it when I do.  After I got home from eating dinner w/Kat, Fred & I went over to Joe & Tina's to hang out for awhile.  Got home at midnight & passed out for the night.

I was supposed to have received my new laptop by now... but I haven't so I'm little pissed to say the least.  I called Dell on Friday to find out what the deal is & apparently my first order was cancelled for some crazy reason & they had assigned a new order number & forgot to send me an email about it.  Long story short, my laptop is on hold waiting for parts to come in & the estimated delivery date is on or before April 7th.  Urgh really!  Talk about aggrivated, pissed off, etc.  Yep that's what I'm feeling right now to put it lightly.  Especially when the sales dude that I had been talking to all along, now won't return my phone calls or emails!  Oh I hate that.  I'll just be happy when I'm holding my new laptop in my hands.  My patience is wearing thin.

Fred left for western Oklahoma on Friday.  I took my mom to the grocery store Saturday & spent most of the afternoon w/her.  Cleaned house & did laundry on Sunday, all the fun household chores.  That's about the extent of my exciting & entertaining weekend home alone with Abigail.

That first week flew by fast.  Now here I am on my second week at my new job!

Tomorrow I have a dr appointment to go over my results from the liver test I took at the weight clinic a few weeks ago.  I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous about it, but I'm trying to keep my hopes up that everything's just fine & there was some crazy glitch in the blood testing at the weight clinic that day.  Hey it's possible... anything can happen right?  Everyone makes mistakes, nobody's perfect... so I'm just hoping it was an error & it's all good.  I probably won't sleep very good tonight.  I usually never have trouble sleeping, but when something's on my mind, I have trouble falling & staying asleep for very long.

My sweetheart is still in western Oklahoma. I'm hoping that he'll be home tomorrow.  The thought of the possibility of  having not-so-good-results at the dr office then coming home to just Abigail kinda scares me a little.

Plus I do miss him a little... blush.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2 more days & counting...
We had our "pot luck" dinner at work today & it was nice.  Definitely a wide variety of food there.

The entire day was crazy with phone calls, emails & the boss's handing me lists of things they wanted me to document or write down for future reference after I'm gone.  It's been very stressful there from the moment I gave them the news.

Courtney has done an exceptional job at learning everything, I'm very impressed.  She's extremely sharp!  Since she's been sharing my office with me, we've gotten to know each other better & she's opened up to me allot, which she informed me that she doesn't ever do with anyone.  She's 19 years old, full of energy & eager to learn the ropes.

I wish I had more time to train her & get her more comfortable & confident before I up & leave, but well, that won't happen because Friday's my last day.

Well I still haven't made it to any stores to do any shopping for new clothes yet.
Yeah, Yeah... I know... time is closing in on me & I'll end up running crazy this weekend to find clothes at the last minute I'm sure.

I still dread the thought of shopping & trying on clothes, but I don't have a choice... sometime between now & Monday I've gotta get it done.

I've been looking over my new employee handbook & it was a little overwhelming at all the benefits they offer.  It's so exciting I just want to jump up & down.  It's almost like a dream come true when you go from a company with absolutely no benefits to a company with tons of benefits.

Well all in all this has been a good St. Patrick's day.

Fred made biscuits & gravy for dinner tonight... YUMMY!
Oh how I love biscuits & gravy.  I could probably eat it every single day.

My goal is to be in bed by midnight tonight.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed it happens.
Happy St. Patrick's day!

new job new wardrobe

I've been lucky for over 10 years now with every job I've had.  I've been able to wear jeans or more casual clothes to work.  Now... with  my new job, I'm required to wear business casual clothes & we can wear jeans on Fridays.  This means I have some shopping to do & I hate shopping, especially for clothes.

With me starting my job on Monday, I should probably get motivated to get out & shop, but so far I just haven't had the motivation to do so.

Does anyone know how to lose 20lbs in less than a week, without surgery or starving yourself to death?
Just kidding

This week has been absolutely crazy busy.  Trying to train Courtney & put a process procedures book together at the same time, wow my mind is about shot to say the least.

I've been trying to get to bed at a decent hour this week to prepare myself to start getting up & around earlier for my new job.  But... it hasn't quite worked out that way just yet.  Midnight is about my norm & well I have a hard time waking up.  Back n the day I used to be a morning person, but the older I get... well the harder it is for me to get up in the mornings, period.

Tomorrow everyone is bringing food for lunch for a "pot luck".  Friday is my last day at work, but several people won't be there Thurs/Fri so they wanted to do something Wednesday that way everyone can join in.  Everyone talked me into bringing Apple Dumplings, which is no problem.  It's the easiest desert to make & wow talk about addicting!  It's hard not to eat them until tomorrow at lunch.  The smell while they're cooking in the oven is ridiculous & makes your mouth start watering.  It should be illegal I swear it.

Officially 3 more days & counting until I move forward onto a new job & start over.  Wow.  It's still hard to believe it's all happening even though... it is really happening.

already here

Jr. Rodeo season is a little over a month away now.  Truth be known... I'm not ready yet.

Last year we had record breaking entries every single night & didn't get home until sometimes 5:30am in the morning.  Totally crazy in my opinion.  After the season was over, I'll admit I was relieved, but I always miss seeing everyone between seasons though.

I'm not 100% sure that I'm burned out with it all just yet, but somedays I do think about throwing in the towel.  After the rodeo meeting last night & with everyone voting on adding another event to our already extremely long rodeo night... I'm a little stressed out about that for sure.  Not even quite sure what to think about it actually.  I guess we'll just have to wait & see how the first rodeo weekend goes.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about having a variety of events for the kids to participate in & giving the older kids more options, but I just think somewhere we've gotta draw the line.  The rodeo lasts long enough as it is, so I'm not sure what will happen after we add another event... will that bring in more entries every night?  How much longer will the rodeo last?  I guess we'll know the answer to that after the first few rodeo weekends pass.

With me starting a new job in another week & it 's about a 30 minute drive to & from work... making it to the rodeo early on Friday nights is going to be hard.  As always though, I will figure someway to make it all work out.

Between now & the first weekend of rodeo, I have a ton of stuff to get done... and I'm just not quite motivated yet, LOL!

crazy news

What a crazy week this has been so far.  It's only Wednesday & it feels like it should be Friday.

It also seems like it's been weeks since I gave my 2 weeks notice at work... but it's only been 2 days.

I've been absolutely swamped at work trying to get things in order & put together a "Reference Manual" for my future replacement... whom ever that might be.  I'm a very detailed person & I don't have much time left to get it all in order & in place like I think it should be.

So I went to the weight clinic yesterday to start getting back on track again & lose some weight.  They did blood work, I sat thru a seminar thing & visited with the dr... a 2 & 1/2 hour process.  I'm excited about the weather starting to get warmer so I can be outside & be more active.  I'm looking forward to losing some weight again & being able to fit back into clothes that I have in the closet.

The clinic called today to inform me that they got my blood work results back & my AST/ALT numbers were to high & told me I should make an appointment with my regular dr to get some more tests ran.  Just great.  Just great I tell ya.  Intially I felt a little weak & was hoping that I was having a daytime-nightmere of some sort, but that wasn't the case.  It was real.  I called the Indian Clinic to make an appointment to get some more blood work done & hopefully get this figured out asap.

Of course I had no clue what AST/ALT meant when they told me so I asked & they said it was the liver.  Yep, that freaked me out just a little.  So I looked it up online earlier, cause I wanted to know a little more info.

Aspartate Transaminase (AST)
It is raised in acute liver damage. It is also present in red blood cells and cardiac muscle, skeletal muscle, and kidney and brain tissue, and may be elevated due to damage to those sources as well.

Alanine Transaminase (ALT)
Significantly elevated levels of ALT often suggest the existence of other medical problems such as viral hepatitis, congestive heart failure, liver damage, biliary duct problems, infectious mononucleosis, or myopathy. For this reason, ALT is commonly used as a way of screening for liver problems. However, elevated levels of ALT do not automatically mean that medical problems exist. Fluctuation of ALT levels is normal over the course of the day, and ALT levels can also increase in response to strenuous physical exercise.

I was hoping that I would find something positive to read, but nope.  I'm thinking their blood tests were wrong.  Maybe the person that was doing the testing was in training & screwed something up.  Hey it could happen.  Mistakes happen all the time.  Ya never know.  I will feel better once I get an appointment with the Indian Clinic & get this figured out.  They're supposed to call me back tomorrow so we can get something scheduled, so we'll see.

If it's not one thing, it's always something else, isn't it?  Geez.