Life and Loves

e have been extremely busy with preparations for the wedding, so we haven’t spent much time doing things as a family, so today we headed down to Lake Hollingsworth for the annual Crop Walk. We meet people from our church at First Presbyterian and there is normally a huge crowd there with music and lots of Crop Walk stickers and signs.

It was a beautiful day albeit extremely cold and windy! This year was spent walking with some of the Sizemore family and my mom came along too. Here are pictures from the hour-long trek:

Jason decided to scoop me up in front of everyone, which was scary enough, but then someone from our group had the bright idea to put Nora up there with me! I think we look a bit like a totem pole!

The kids, my mom, Jason and I thought it would be a great idea to go and grab ice cream afterward, so we headed to the beloved Baskin Robbins. Banana Royale anyone? Yum! I snapped a quick pic of the three musketeers before we headed home.

It was nice to hang out with friends and family and get some exercise. We might try to do this more often, especially since Jason and I will be walking our booty’s off in NYC!

chool has been a major investment of my time for about two years now. I have been working on my A.S. in Office Management. I originally started in that direction because of the opportunity to work in Jason’s company and it is something I thought I would be good at. I am not, however, interested in being a receptionist. I know from experience that I am not a good administrative assistant. Sitting meekly in a chair answering phone calls all day would cause me to gouge my eyeballs out with a spoon!

Sadly, a receptionist position is pretty much all that is available right now in the short list of jobs in my area on Monster. The office management jobs require four year degrees and I would need someone to take a chance that I would be able to do what is required with only an A.A. With so many people out of work and taking jobs they are over qualified for, the chances of someone under qualified getting the job is very slim, but not impossible.

Another obstacle, is the classes needed to finish my office management degree are spread out for the next three terms (including summer). The classes I have left are Economics, Business Law, International Office Protocol, Word Processing and Forms Design. I have been doing a lot of writing and revising lately which I enjoy immensely. The classes I have enjoyed the most have been classes like Business Communications that teach you how to write and communicate better in business. This passion for writing and the hesitation to continue with office management lead me to do a little research into what degrees I could get given the classes I have already taken, even if only an A.A. in Liberal Arts.

I had thought about Mass Communications before, but knew it would require further schooling in order to do anything with it. I looked at it again and realized how close I was to obtaining that degree. I figured I could do just as much if not more with an A.A. in Mass Comm than an A.S. in Office Management. The classes still needed for that degree are, Nutrition and Drugs (Biology), Philosophy, my second math, Public Speaking, and a 6 week discussion course that is mostly a topical writing course. All of these classes are offered in the Fall of 2010 and can be taken in Plant City. Which means I wouldn’t be driving to Ybor everyday. The courses also sound a heck of a lot more interesting!

I talked to an adviser yesterday on my way home from Ybor and she double-checked my calculations and I decided to change my major. I feel better about this degree and hope to continue my education. I may stick with Mass Comm or I may choose another path, but I am certain it will have something to do with writing.

ot much going on here. Wedding stuff mostly which you can see here. All my free time is spent consumed with the dwindling wedding to-do list.

I watched Bride Wars the other night. It talks about what the last few weeks are like before the wedding for some couples. We definitely are having our share of hiccups at this point. I am looking forward to our meeting with Pastor Tim to figure out the words for the ceremony itself. It should be very simple.

Here is Nora in a pair of my wedding shoes. She pulls out all of my shoes some mornings and tries them all on. She loves to here the clunk-clunk of the heels on the hard kitchen floor!

Fast forward about 12 years and she really will be wearing shoes like this. Yikes!

alentine’s day was fist spent this year at the Pancake Festival. I had never heard of this, but Jason got free tickets from a Kiwanis member (who happens to be a friend and customer), so we decided to go. I don’t LOVE pancakes, but thought it would be neat to see.

It was very cold. The line was ridiculously long, but it was interesting to watch the people. I like to see who is represented in the community when we go to events like this. We waited in line until we got to the “tent” which housed the pancake makers. There was about 15 stations of people making large pancakes. We got to watch as they were plated right off the griddle and wonder exactly how many pancakes were made that day. The flipper had lost count or so he says…

We were then given enormous sausages that were very yummy and little packets of butter. Three of us had one pancake each and were all given 3 packets of butter. Three! Noah ate his…whole. Gross! I am told I use to eat butter like this too. I do like butter. :o) Anyway. As we were getting ready to dig a balloon man came over to make balloons for us. This was not your ordinary balloon maker. I had noticed a little boy with a dinosaur earlier and I so wanted one. Noah chose to receive a scorpion. Have you ever seen a balloon scorpion? It was pretty crazy. Nora wanted a pink pony. I got the dinosaur!

Later that evening Our friend Katie came over to watch the kids. (Yay!) The grownups got to go out for a much needed conversation about babies. lol We went to Carrabba’s and had a lovely dinner and then came home and watched a silly movie. My how times have changed.

Today on this actual V-Day, we went to church and Grandma came over to play the Wii. So fun! We are now running out the door to the church’s Valentines day party, kids included, woot! Should be fun! Hope yours was a special weekend too.

We went over to Grandma’s this past Sunday and went to the park by her house. Noah and Grandma rode their Razor’s and Nora rode her bike. Nora must have gone through a growth spurt recently because I’m noticing that she isn’t my little girl anymore and her bike sit too low. Noah, I noticed rides “goofy” otherwise known as with his left foot on the scooter and pushing with his right. Most people ride the other way. They are both getting pretty good at riding and a good time was had by all. When it was time to go home the kids were corrupted and full of chocolate and chips; a job well done by Grandma.

think that all Valentine parties should be as close to the 14th as possible, but this year they decided to have them Thursday instead. Why? Who knows? After choir last night I rush to Wal-Mart to grab a few items including the V-day cards to be brought to school the following day.

I forgot how much I love this holiday. Besides the fact that there is an abundance of candy, there is also the cutest decorations. Hearts are everywhere! Little birdhouses with holes in the shape of a heart and trees with heart ornaments hanging from their branches. :o)

As I was saying, down to the wire for the valentines cards, but I managed to get Bakugon for Noah and Tinkerbell for Nora. Let me tell you, Bakugon is excited (!!) about Valentine’s day and REAAAALLLY wants to “brawl”. Jason helped me tear them all out and get them ready for Noah to write the recipient’s names on the cards. Each friend also received a tattoo! Yeah! What says Happy Valentine’s Day like a Bakugon tattoo? Nora got two stamps (her fave) to decorate her cards with and Tinkerbell stickers. I wrote the names and she stamped the cards. Did I mention this was at seven this morning? I had to drive Noah to school instead of him riding the bus. Crazy morning!

I like being up with everyone in the morning, Jason usually lets me sleep in, and think it has been easier because I have started working out again. When I wake up I actually WAKE UP. Lately my eyes open, but my body says, “umm…no”. I’m excited that we get to have a date night Saturday night. Looking forward to some alone time with my honey. Maybe we’ll swing by the Red Door for a nice glass of wine. I’m hoping for flowers or at least a card. We’ll see. :o)

retty. Don’t you think?

By falling into a bloggity rabbit hole I stumbled upon this really cute blog called the Daily Drop Cap. (Almost) every day she puts up a new letter and you can insert it into your post. Cute huh?

Noah started Cub Scouts in January. There were two holidays, so he didn’t do much, but he did get the rules for his first Pinewood Derby Car Race.

I looked in the box for the “parts” and it had four nails, 4 wheels, and a wood block. Mmmkay. (I’m new to this) Jason explained that he and Noah would design the car and cut it out of the wood, paint and race it. My reply was “that is all you”.

We will find out tonight when the big race will be; probably not this weekend or the following Monday since it’s V-Day and President’s day. Have I mentioned how MANY days off they have in the school year? Craziness.

We had a student’s portfolio presentation the other night at Noah’s school. He writes in his journal almost daily sounding out words and writing the date. He has started to sound out words. It is so neat to watch him almost reading. He still gives up so easily, but is learning perseverance. I hope he learns to love reading as much as I do. I think there is a huge difference between a person who reads and a person who does not, even if it is simply the daily newspaper.

Noah just got home from his weekly meeting and tonight they built a birdhouse. We had just rolled pinecones in peanut butter and bird seeds, so I’m sure the birds will be excited to see more food!

That’s all I have to say about the unreachableness of my little bloggity.

Moving on.

Jason picked Nora up from school the week before last and was badly made fun of by the teachers for this reason:

Two different left shoes worn all day at school and out to the playground. When he brings her to school in the morning he doesn’t usually remember to brush her hair either. Sigh. She didn’t care. She still puts her shoes on the wrong feet to begin with. :o)