Year in Review

Last year I made a list of 13 things that I wanted to get accomplished in 2007. I thought it would be fun to review them and see how I did.

1. Go to Greece! Due to the passport fiasco I did not get to go to Greece. Heather and Kelci went to Greece. After Darby and I finally got our passports the two of us went to Mexico. It was wonderful!!!
2. Take piano lessons I went to one piano lesson and haven't been back since. I just don't have time right now. Hopefully someday I'll be able to do this.
3. Keep my diabetes in check Wow this one so did not happen. In fact my diabetes is worse now than it has ever been. But I'm doing injections now and starting to feel better. I think this is just going to have to be a life long goal!
4. Pay off the last of my credit card debt I DID THIS!!!! It feels wonderful!
5. Complete my first practicum for grad school I DID THIS TOO!!!! I hated every minute of it but it's finally over. I only have three classes and one practicum left to be finished!
6. Spoil my niece Mattie like crazy. I think that this is going very well. I love that little girl more everyday. And now that she lives close by it makes it easier to do!
7. Get my homestudy done so I can move forward with the Ethiopian adoption process. Wow the adoption journey has really taken up most of my year. My homestudy is done, I'm approved through immigration, I'm also approved to adopt domestically. I've had a failed adoption after the birth of a wonderful little boy and now I'm just waiting!
8. Work out consistently. Ugh if I had done this maybe I'd be in better shape with my diabetes. This didn't happen. I don't know why I don't force myself to make time for working out but I'm very bad about it.
9. Raise $1000 for the Relay for Life. I didn't raise $1000 but I did raise a little over $800 which makes me very happy!
10. Organize my shop building. Heather and I got the shop building organized but it's now unorganized again. It's ridiculous. That building is one huge mess!
11. Go see the chalk pyramids. I haven't done this. I still really want to go. Maybe some day soon.
12. Meet all my work objectives. I did this and then some. I took a promotion and I'm now a supervisor. I've never worked so hard in my life. It's crazy. I don't know what I was thinking!
13. Get my yard fenced. The yard is now fenced. Lena and I are both loving it!!!

So that's the review. In the next couple of days I'll post a list of some things I'd like to do in 2008. I have a feeling it's going to be a great year.

Jessie

Shrinking Sally

I used to work with a gal years ago that was pretty heavy. She probably had about 150 pounds to lose. I hadn't seen her in a long time when I ran into her this week. She has lost a ton of weight! She had a lap band procedure done to help her and looks amazing! She told me a little about her surgery and it's interesting but scary to me.

Any surgery scares me. I won't lie I'm a baby when it comes to things like that. But the idea of having that big of a surgery really scares me! However, there is now a laproscopic lapband procedure that is less invasive. That isn't as scary to me.

If you go to journeylite.com you can learn a lot more about the procedure. Journeylite performs laproscopic lapband procedures at several different locations. So if you want you can go to central florida lapband and enjoy some time at the beach before or after your procedure. They have a ton of information on their website about it. It's pretty amazing what doctors can do now. I never would have guessed that type of procedure could be done so easily. Pretty amazing!

Jessie

Busy Weekend

What a busy weekend! We had Mattie's first birthday party yesterday. Man I love that kid. She tore her cake up. It was pretty dang funny. She may not understand the present piece but she totally gets the cake smushing piece. Makes for great pictures.

After that we headed to our third and final Christmas celebration with my mom's side of the family. We had a great time! Our aunts are so funny. They do so many things that remind me of my mom. Heather and I laughed a lot. They got us some wonderful gifts as usual. Those gals have us figured out.

This year Heather and I sorted through all of my mom's Christmas decorations. Keep in mind between my mom and I there are 2 trees, 13 rubbermaid containers, and 2 large garbage sacks of decorations. Yes that's a lot! So we went through everything and decided what Heather and I wanted, what we thought the aunts might like and what just needed to be retired due to wear and tear. We ended up with a good size tub for the aunts. So we took it yesterday for them to look through. They were pretty dang funny about it! It was hilarious watching them pick through, barter with one another, trade it up, make deals. Funny gals.

I love my family.

Jessie

Paintball Knowledge

As you know my identity was stolen a couple weeks ago. As I've been sifting through all of the reports, transactions, and drama surrounding that I'm learning all kinds of things. I noticed some transactions related to paintball and I honestly don't know much about paintball so I've done some investigating. I wasn't sure what a couple of the things were that I alledgedly bought so I surfed the web until I figured out what each item was. Heck if I'm paying for it I want to know what it is right!

One thing I have figured out for sure is that there are a ton of paintball supplies out there! I had no idea how many different paintball guns there were, that there were so many different kinds of paintballs and that you could spend so much money on it. I actually am kind of interested in playing some paintball now.

I came across one huge online paintball store that is pretty impressive. Luckily for me there person that stole my identity didn't find this site. They could have had a hayday on here. This store sells everything from the spyder vs2 gun to paintball pants, gloves and neck protectors. They have Tippmann guns and extra parts. They even have reuseable paintballs! Who knew you could go green with paintball!!!

So if you need to shop for any paintball supplies they are the folks to visit. And if you have questions about paintball it's shocking but I might be the girl to ask.

Jessie

Christmas Number Two

Tonight we had Christmas number 2! Lots of fun! Shawn, Amanda, Mattie, Amanda's parents, her brother and sister, Monte, Kathy, and Heather all came to our house for dinner and gifts. I think everyone had a really great time. Mattie was of course her adorable entertaining self. She wore a little Santa dress that was just too cute! She wasn't to into the presents but she did like pulling the bows of my packages and eating them. Good times.

I got some wonderful gifts. Heather got me a blue tooth for my phones. Since I spend so much time on my work cell phone I thought it would be nice to have. She also got me a beautiful ring. Shawn and Amanda got me a new family picture of them and the game mad gab! It is so much fun. I can't wait to play it on New Years Eve. Amanda's family got me some earrings and a couple of great adoption books. Gotta love that! And Monte and Kathy got me two beautiful nativity sets. One is actually an angel with a nativity in the middle of it. Very stunning.

So Happy Christmas for me! Tommorow is Mattie's 1st birthday party. That's exciting stuff. Then in the afternoon Heather and I are heading to Topeka to do Christmas with my Aunts. I think Christmas Number 3 is our final Christmas celebration. After all that I think I'm going to spend Sunday sleeping. :-)

Jessie

Mattie Moo

Tonight I went out to Shawn and Amanda's house to visit after work. Amanda's family is in town for the next week or so and I haven't seen them in a year! So it was nice to visit with them and catch up a little bit. It was also wonderful to see my niece Mattie Moo. I missed her while I was in Texas. It's weird how spoiled you get so quickly. I've really adjusted to seeing her every few days so it seemed like a long time to go without.

She is quite the trouble maker lately. She is really into exploring everything and finding whatever she can get into. Tonight she figured out how to open the drawers and get things out. Luckily it was the drawer that all the dish towels were in. She had quite a fun time throwing them all out! Everyone but her parents thought it was pretty cute and funny. Needless to say they weren't as amused. We made her stop after I snapped a few pictures. Fun stuff!




Jessie

Honey I'm Home

Heather and I made it home from Texas safe and sound tonight! Christmas Day is the day to fly! Our flights were on time, there wasn't a crowd and people were in great moods. On our last flight there was maybe 15 people so we all got to spread out and have a section of seats to ourselves. Very nice!

It was really beautiful flying into Wichita. There was a bunch of snow on the ground and it made for great sightseeing. I love the view from the plane! I thought the cold would be a real shocker when we got home but it wasn't bad at all. It was about 45 when we landed but no breeze so it was all good.

It was wonderful to walk in the door and have Lena girl all excited to see me! I really missed her while I was gone. She and I both had a bunch of Christmas stuff here at the house from Monte and his friend Cathy. I got great healthy stocking stuffers like graham crackers, crystal light, a splenda cookbook, some sugar free gum, lotion, and a calculator. Lena had a new toy cell phone and a new sweater!

Now that I have unpacked a little I'm gonna go to sleep in my own bed! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Jessie

Warm Christmas

Wow it's Christmas Eve and it's mighty warm here in Corpus! I can't believe that we spent the day at the day at the beach. We had a good time. We collected shells, walked a lot, played in the water a little bit, and took some fun pictures. It's been between 60-80 every day since we have been here and no RAIN this year!!! Good times.

Heather and I head back to Kansas tomorrow. We are missing a huge snow storm there. I guess they got 8 inches of snow back home while we were enjoying the sun. Go figure. I love big snows like that. Hopefully we will another big snow after I get home. The time at the beach was worth missing the snow though.

We opened gifts a couple days ago and I got some great things. I got a jump drive for my computer which I really really wanted! I needed that very badly. I also got a crockpot and a cook book. Is someone trying to give me a hint about my not so great cooking skills? I got some candles, the Mania perfume that I love (that stuff is liquid sex), and a couple cool ornaments. I was very pleased. My dad got a digital picture frame that my Brother-In-Law has all loaded up with pictures for him. It's really awesome. Now that I've seen that I really want one of those. Maybe for my birthday right...

Okay hope you all have a great Christmas Eve!

Jessie

Quirks

We all have quirks. And I'm starting to realize that I have a lot of my mom's quirks. When I was a kid I thought she was really weird for doing this thing before we would travel. She would always empty all the trash cans. She would do it if we were leaving for an overnight trip or a week long vacation. Whenever I asked her why she would say, "well if I died on the trip I would hate for someone to have to worry about my trash". I always thought that was so stupid. We would be worry about other things rather than the trash.

Well I caught myself tonight being quirky like her but even worse! I'm leaving to go to Texas on Thursday night for Christmas with my Dad and Cricket. You should see my list of to do before we leave. It's ridiculous. So I started thinking about it and I do this with every trip. I pay all my bills a month in advance before a trip. I clean the entire house, wash my bedding, empty the dishwasher, do all the laundry, stock up on dog food and household supplies. It's ridiculous! And you know why I do it. Because if something would happen to me while I'm gone I'd hate for Darby and Heather to have to worry about all those things while they are trying to straighten out my dying or injuring myself. My God I'm my MOM!!!!

It makes no sense. If I die in a plane crash Darby really isn't gonna care if she has to buy my dog food or empty the dishwasher. She will just do it and take care of everything because that is what she does. But I would hate to make it more work for her so I do it. And I'm stressing out trying to get it all done. It really is a dumb thing to do to myself. But I have a feeling I always will.

And while I type this up I'm wasting time I could be mopping or scrubbing the toilets! Gotta run!!!

Jessie

The Pantry

Well as promised I ended up cleaning out my pantry. It really needed it. I actually ended up doing it last night because I was on a roll and thought I ought to just get it done. What's crazy is it only took me 15 minutes to do! Why did I let it get so bad in the first place. 15 minutes is nothing. I went ahead and took pictures of the nightmare pantry to show you. I am embarrassed that I let it get like this but maybe the embarrassment of showing it to the world will prevent me from doing it again. So here are the pics.... Ridiculous!



Notice the bulging doors. Yes you should be frightened. That is never a good sign!!!




It's dangerous to open. You never know what will fall out. Luckily the box of Cheerios isn't that heavy. I could have ended up with a broken toe if the canned items had fallen out. Hazardous I say!




And here is the pretty pantry after I got done. How nice and neat. Amazing what you find when you clean it out. I have four cans of Bush's Chili Magic so I guess I'm making Chili this week. I also have a bunch of tuna. Good stuff. Several boxes of cereal and a total of 30 boxes of jello. Yes 30! What's crazy is the stuff I threw away. A can of Enchilada sauce that expired in 1997 and a jar of pizza sauce that expired in 2002. Let's not forget the huge jar of cherries that was 2 years old. SCARY!!!

Jessie

The Great Purge

Since it snowed like crazy today and I didn't have anything else productive to do I decided to purge the house. I try to do this every year before Christmas. I figure that more stuff will come in due to excess gifting so I better get rid of things to make room for it. So this year I went crazy and really did some serious purging.

I ended up taking out 5 garbage bags of clothes, 2 bags of books and magazines, 2 garbage bag of random what the heck is this and why do I have it stuff and a bag of shoes, flip flops, purses, and hair stuff. Wahoo! There is room in my closets, my coffee table is clear and nothing falls out of the bathroom cabinet when I open it now! That's success!

Tommorow I'm going to purge the pantry and kitchen cabinets. Then I'm going to give the whole house a good cleaning. A little above and beyond the regular cleaning I do. I think there are some dust bunnies living on fans and behind furniture. So I need to evict them and freshen the place up a bit.

Good times!
Jessie

Sports Injury

I have my first sports related injury. Tonight I was playing a rousing game of tennis with Darby and she whacked me in the arm with her Wii Remote! Talk about pain. But there is no gain without it. The adrenaline rush from the injury forced me to kick her ass! She had no chance of winning after that.

So tomorrow I'm going shopping for a helmet and body pads so I can be protected when I play with her. She is vicious! I may beat her at tennis but she gets even when it's time to golf. I can't golf at all so it's gauranteed that she will beat me everytime! I actually set a personal record at golf tonight with a +8!!! How pathetic is that!!! So sad.

All the ice melted here today. So no more wiping out in the parking lot at work or my driveway like I did earlier this week. That's good. But tomorrow we are supposed to get snow so I'm guessing by Saturday it will be yucky again. Gotta love winter weather.

Jess

Bad Boys Bad Boys

I feel like I'm living in an episode of Cops. I spent half my day meeting with police officers about the identity theft crap. And I spent the other half of the day dealing with my bank and all the credit card companies. Fun times around here! While it's been a total pain in the ass I do feel like I'm making progress. Charges have been filed and it seems there is some really good evidence so hopefully they will be able to make the charges stick and really hold him accountable for all this.

I'm really impressed with how serious law enforcement takes identity theft. They have been so helpful in trying to correct this. They are getting me free copies of my credit reports, they have helped contact banks and credit card companies when I was hitting road blocks. They have just been very helpful and supportive. Impressive for small town cops!

So I'm off to sleep and hopefully in the morning I'll wake up to an uneventful day!!!

Jess

Identity Theft

Well my identity has been stolen. And with my identity it appears that about $3200.00 has been stolen too. Luckily my credit card companies and my bank are good about fraud detection and noticed so I won't be charged for any of it. I guess they questioned me spending $300 at the apple store in the middle of the night. I don't seem like an apple store midnight shopper. They also questioned all the other crazy charges.

What's funny is that the person that stole my identity is my ex boyfriend. I guess there is always a reason they are the ex. He wasn't even sneaky about it. I ended up getting an email from one of the businesses that he was using my info at that had his email included in it. So it wasn't hard to figure out. What I can't figure out is how he got all my info. The real kicker is that he maxed out one card at $1300 so he paid it off with money from my checking account! Then he put another $1300 on the card before it got stopped. So the money will be returning to my account and the other charges are being credited also. The only way the credit card company will do that though is if I file a police report.

Due to the horrible weather here the police department won't take the report till morning which is fine by me. I'd like to go to bed soon. But after that they will just have to arrest him. I'm really not even mad. I'm really disappointed that he made these choices that are going to land him in jail. Stealing is just wrong. While I'm not mad yet I may be mad when the credit report I just ordered shows up. If he has done other things that aren't so easy to fix I'm going to be very upset. I work hard to maintain good credit so he better not jack that up.

Good times here!

Jessie

Ice Storm

There is a big old ice storm a coming through. It's been raining and freezing like crazy. Not pretty. There are a lot of people already without power so I'm preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. I've got my flashlights and candles ready. I've got food and water and a good book. It's gonna be fine.

I've been watching the news too see if SRS will be closed tommorow. I'm crossing my fingers and toes. If SRS is closed then we can close our office which would make me a happy girl. I hate getting out in crummy weather. While I was watching all the closings roll across the screen I noticed that the Topeka Driving School is canceling there classes tomorrow. SHOCKING! Why would they even list that. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that if there is an inch of ice on the roads they aren't going to try and teach people how to drive. Fools!

Jessie

Pictures

Today I tried to take Caden's Christmas pictures. Caden usually is one of the easiest kids to photograph. But today he wanted NONE of it. He just wanted to play and goof off. Which makes perfect sense because he is three and fun and who wants to mess with silly Christmas pictures when you can run really fast and chase cats and pretend you are superman...

So we ended up with a few cute pictures and quite a few Christmas card rejects. You can see the end results below. But most of all we had fun. Caden is turning into such a big boy. He was hilarious at lunch after the picture attempt. He talks so clearly now and he adores me which just makes my heart happy. If all else fails at least I have an adorable three year old as one of my biggest fans. It doesn't get much better than that.

So here are the pics... Enjoy!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Jessie

Hospital Horrors

Today I woke up not feeling so great. I had a bad headache and just felt funny. I went to work and felt a little better briefly and then I felt pretty rotten. I guess I wasn't making much sense so my co-workers took me to the hospital. My blood sugar was really high so that explains it. They gave me a shot of insulin and I felt better almost immediately.

They had to run lab work which was good because they figured out I had an infection which is why my sugars are high. The bad part is that I think they sent the oldest lab tech in the world to do it. He was a pretty old guy and I think he must have failed the course several times. He ended up blowing out the vein in my left arm.

So now I have this huge red purple lump on my arm. It looks like a blood blister the size of a golf ball. It's throbbing like crazy. I ended up calling back up to the hospital and asking what to do about it because it keeps getting bigger. They said to just put ice on it and try not to bump it. Great advice. Try not to bump it. Like I wasn't trying to do that already!

I have to go back to my regular doctor tomorrow and have more lab work done and possibly get another insulin shot. Hopefully my antibiotics will kick in and my blood sugar will go down on it's own in the next couple days....

I'm sure this is going to cost me a small fortune. ER visits are never cheap. When I called back up there tonight about my arm I asked the nurse if you get the visit for free when you leave with an injury.... she didn't think that was so funny. I wasn't joking though. I think if they don't get the blood on the first try you should get the visit for free... Maybe when I'm boss of the world I'll start that program.

Jess

Wii Wonderful

I'm loving my Nintendo Wii! I've been playing it a lot and it's so much fun. Tonight Heather and Darby came over and played it too. We laughed so hard. Heather is quite the tennis player and Darby kicked my butt at bowling. Unfortunately we all suck at baseball. And the really sad part is that we all will be hurting tomorrow. For a video game it sure takes it out of ya! I'm anxious to see how much weight I lose this week from playing that thing.

Tomorrow Shawn and Amanda move home. Good times. We have to unload everything of the moving truck tomorrow. YUCK! I love that they are moving home. I'm dreading the unloading. Hopefully it won't be raining the whole time.

Off to bed!

Jessie