Public Speaking

I have never had any complexes when it comes to me being the center of attention. I love attention, I love being in the spotlight. I enjoy seeing that people are listening to what I have to say. No, I don't like being the center of attention all the time, from time to time it's needed :) So, when I was going to Normandale Community College and taking Public Speaking I had no issues with getting up in front of strange people and talk. Keep in mind, I love talking as much as I love being in the spotlight...to be honest, I probably like talking a lot more :)

Anyway, out of all my classes at Normandale I enjoyed Public Speaking probably the most. Why? Simple. The class was fun, I got to meet a good friend of mine in there, and the teacher was great. Not only was he good at teaching, but he also made the class fun. And I did learn quite a bit in that class. Although I didn't have to overcome any fear of talking in front of public, I still learned a lot about how to give a good speech, and trained myself on how to talk without 'ums' and 'ahs' in my conversations. I notice when people use those fillers, and it drives me nuts! I have learned many other things too...but let's not get into it, because the main reason why I am writing this blog is because of my professor.

The amazing part is that I have stayed in touch with him over the years, and every time I meet with him I walk out with more confidence and ambition. The guy is simply amazing, he is very outgoing, he is open-minded, energetic, ambitious, curious and genuine. Even after spending 15 minutes talking to him, you walk out with your spirit high and new goals. He inspires me to do greater, bigger things in life without even saying it, but just talking about the right things, asking the right questions, he just makes you think!!! Anyway, I am very blessed to have had him for a teacher, because he has definitely played an important part in my life. I am very thankful to him for staying in touch and being genuinely interested.

Breakfast, Opera and Dinner

Oh, yes, life is good, and it's even better when you do above mentioned activities with a group of people who are there to support local or national charities. Matt and I have a few events coming up that we have decided to attend to help out local or national charities: pancake breakfast, opera recital and dinner. I think it's great that we get to have a great time while donating our money to a worthy cause. I am all for donating without any events being set up, but I enjoy doing things and being exposed to different people, so I find going to charity fundraising events very tempting and exciting!!!

I can't wait to attend the above mentioned events!!! I am so excited! It should be a blast!!! I might be going nuts about all the charity work, but Matt does not seem to mind and it really does make me happy and opens my eyes and mind to things I never thought of, and sure does make me more humble and thankful for what I have!

It finally happened!!!

My wedding ring is rather unusual, it's platinum band with a sapphire in the center and it's surrounded by amethist on each side. Well, some of you might not know that amethist is a semi-precious stones and are very soft. Why do I have amethists in my ring? Easy. Sapphire is my stone and Amethist is Matt's birthstone...so, that is why :) Well, about a week after Matt proposed to me I chipped one of the amethists. Then I went in and replaced it and then a month later I chipped the other amethist stone....Before the wedding I went in and replaced it,and about 2 weeks after that I chipped the second replacement stone. After that I have decided that I am just going to wait and replace the stones after they are so chipped I can no longer stand it. Well, the funny part is that I kept chipping the same stone over and over again and finally about a week ago the stone got so chipped that there wasn't enough of it to hold it in place...so now I have a ring with a sapphire in the center, an amethist to one side of it and a hole to the other :) I am going to wait a couple of months before replacing the stones, because I am going to put sapphires instead of both amethists, but I will put the sapphires that are the color of amethists :) I just don't want to keep replacing the stones, and I am quite tired of them chipping. But meanwhile I am without a ring :( It feels weird not to have it on, I must admit!!! 2 years though...it took me 2 years to make that stone fall out, not bad :) considering that it gets chipped so easily....the bizarre part is that i kept chipping the same stone over and over again, the other amethist (that was replaced once) never got chipped after it was replaced....Oh well....such is life!

Headache? Really? Not feeling well? Hmm, not sure

I have been watching the kids this past week, well, almost the entire week. I am actually watching the kids for 2 different families during this week, both families rock!!! I love their kids!!! One of the families is the very first people I babysat for :) Anyway, so today I am watching their kids. The kids are rather grown up now, the oldest is 17, and the youngest is 9, which is very different from when I first met them and the youngest was 1 month old :) Anyway, today the youngest one woke up and informed me that she was not feeling well. She said her head and stomach hurt and she felt funny. After her crying for awhile because she did not feel well and wanted to stay home, I gave in, called the school, cancelled my volunteering that I was going to do while the kids are at school, and let her stay home. She seemed to be ok with my course of actions, and I really don't mind keeping her home if she does not feel well, and I can sympathise with her having a bad headache and just wanting to rest.
However, I find it funny that she decided to play piano and do hopscotch...Hmm, seriously? Because when I have a bad headache I just want to lay in bed until it's gone. She has been rather chipper since I told her she is staying home. I am thinking that I have been tricked :) Honestly, I don't really care, I think her mom might care more about her skipping school today, but honestly, I did not want to shove her out the door if she didn't feel well. Anyway, as part of my agreement to her stay home, she needs to take a nap during the day. I think it's a fair play since most kids who don't feel well are up for a nap anyway. She seems ok with it, although I doubt she will fall asleep. She is laying down as I type, but we will see.
Like I said, I enjoy spending time with her, I just found it funny that she wasn't behaving like she was feeling badly. I wonder if 9 year olds don't put it together that if you say you feel sick then you probably shouldn't be jumping up and down on trampoline and do summersaults off the couch, but maybe I am just getting old and don't know what I am talking about :) Just thought her behavior was amusing and I did chuckle a few times at me being so easily swayed to let her stay home :) For those of you who don't know me, I am a pushover....big times....as long as kids behave they can get me to do just about anything for them.

Volunteering is Addicting!!!

Man, I am finding that volunteering is quite a bit addicting!!! I have been trying to get involved in local volunteering opportunities, and I am finding that I really enjoy helping people out. Matt jokes that I am addicted to feeding the hungry, well, it's because I am involved with Meals on Wheels in NE Minneapolis and St. Anthony Village area and also I just started volunteering for the Salvation Army Meal Serving initiative to feed the homeless people in Minneapolis area. Even though I am not doing anything to provide them with food, I do hope that my service will help people in receiving their meals that they are struggling to get. Other than that I am involved with ALS association and these 3 activities are going to keep me rather busy in the near future. Once in awhile I will volunteer for other opportunities, but those won't be ongoing. I love volunteering, and I really don't understand people who are bored living their lives. There is nothing boring about this world, and there is nothing boring about helping people out, so if some people are bored....well, get out and help others. I am actually surprised how very few young people are volunteering. There are a few of course, but many of the volunteers are older people. Sure, you might argue that they have more time, and while that is true, I will never believe that those who are not retire or those who work full-time have no time to dedicate to helping others. If that is true, that there is absolutely no time in somebody's life to leave their print in this world, well, then that person just does not want to make time, it's as simple as that! Anyway, but I am not judging, I am just saying that I am really enjoying it and am getting addicted to it, although like my sister said 'it's a healthy addiction to have' I just hope that my husband agrees with that, seeing that volunteering brings no money into our family :)
Cheers everybody!

ALS

...or better known as Lou Gehrig's disease is...well, just a horrible disease that affects about 30,000 people in the US, and 400 of them live right here in MN. Every week 2 people in MN die from this disease and every week 2 people are diagnosed with it. It progresses really fast, people sometimes have only a few months to live after they are diagnosed, while others might enjoy life for 5 years. Although, enjoying is not what they do when they are alive with the diagnose of Lou Gehrig's disease, because once it's diagnosed, it just gets worse. People lose their ability to move, communicate and get trapped in their own body. People with ALS can understand everything that is going on around them and to them, there is just nothing they can do.

Why am I talking about ALS? Because I am now a volunteer for ALS Association. Most of the time people with ALS have caregivers, however, taking care of somebody who has ALS requires a lot of energy and is a very emotionally and time consuming job! There are quite a few families out there (even in MN) who are looking for somebody to come and help them while they can dedicate their time to taking care of their special person with ALS. I get a chance to clean for a person with ALS and their caregiver in an attempt to make their lives easier by removing that chore from their worries. I can't wait to start!!! April 1st is my first day!!!

Things keep breaking!!!

I think it's me, that is the only variable that has changed in the last month and ever since I got home things seem to be breaking, and not just random things, things that I am around, and the ones that I use on a regular basis. Want examples? Oh, I'll give you examples, because I have freaking plenty of those: DVD player, vacuum cleaner and hair dryer. I mean how can 3 things that I need go broken in just a matter of the last 3 weeks. COME ON. SERIOUSLY?
Of course, this should come at no other timing but when we are on a budget :) It's like God is trying to test us as to how closely we will stick to our agreed budget, that we have been trying to be very good about (good meaning very closely). Unfortunately, we did not foresee 3 very important things breaking in our house, and did not really take that into account (budget wise :)) Anyway, the vacuum cleaner technically still makes noise and turns on, it just does not suck anything up, which is the same as broken. Matt even took it all apart to see if it was clogged up or something, nope, just stupid cleaner decided to quit working on us.
Our DVD player broke when Matt's folks were in town, it worked the night before, but when they came to visit and we decided to settle for a nice movie watching evening, it just did not want to play any DVDs, and it did not want to work the next day either. We did get a new DVD player though, because Matt's folks were generous enough to surprise us with a new DVD player, and it's a very nice one, definitely much nicer than what we would have bought. Then, two days ago I took a shower and thought I was going to dry my hair, but nope, had to go with the airdrying it, because my stupid hair dryer would not turn on. I mean I used it the day before, what the heck happened during the night?
Anyway, I am not buying Revlon hair dryer anymore, nor will I purchase any Eureka vacuum cleaner ever, in fact the only vacuum cleaner that I will get is Dyson, because I don't care if I have to spend extra as long as I know that it's reliable and will last me a few years!!!!
So, that is my tale of hair freaking dryer, vacuum stupid cleaner and DVD dumb player. If you want to get something new in your house but haven't had a chance because your old stuff still works, well, just invite me over, because shit seems to malfunction and break around me!!!
No worries, I am still in a great mood, just getting a little "excited" about this whole situation!!!

MN Spring

I absolutely love Minnesota Spring...maybe because it's always sunny, maybe because it's finally getting warm after long winter months, maybe because I love having dinners on the deck and people over when we can actually grill (although, I must say our grill might need replacement sometime soon) and drink beers and laugh!!! Somehow having parties inside is just not the same!!!

Anyway, I am super glad to see warm weather coming our way, and hearing birds sing and watching the trees turn green!!! This weather puts me in a good mood, that is for sure!

Cooking, cleaning, seeing lots of friends, etc.

If anybody is wondering what I have been up to lately, well, ever since I got back to the states, have no worries, I have been plenty occupied. The main thing that I have been doing really is seeing friends. We have gone out with a few, visited others at their houses, and had a few of the friends come over to our house for dinner. Great times!!!!
I have also been rather busy cleaning my beautiful home (well, it's getting to the beautiful part) and cooking for my lovely husband :)
Recently though I have decided that it's time for me to make a difference in this world and to make sure that when I die (I know, it's early to think about that, but who knows when it will happen, so better start now :)) I will know that I have brought joy to others during my life. So, I have decided to get involved in volunteering. Right now I am on board with Meals on Wheels (delivering lunches to people who can't cook for themselves due to physical health/condition), and also getting involved with association that helps people with ALS (Lou Gehrig disease), it's a horrible disease and I want to be of any help I can be to those people that suffer from it (I would clean, run errands for those people).
But besides just me getting to help others, I want to make sure I live my life to the fullest as well, and enjoy my time, so I am getting involved in the local book club, time for me to start going to church on a regular basis as well, and maybe a couple of other opportunities will add to my calendar soon (such as learning German and maybe getting involved with WEP, wetland bioassessment)
I am getting to the point where I am satisfied with my life :) which feels great!!! Now it's time for a nap :) Cheers everybody!!!

Home Sweet Home

I love my house, everything about it. I don't care if it's messy, I don't care if it's dusty, I don't care that it takes over a month to get it back into shape :) I just love my house, because it's mine!!! I can do anything I want to in here! It's mine!!! My baby is here (Matt that is), and I have lots of time on my hand to make it look just the way I want to :) Today though I have cleaned the oven, I will be so thankful when we have a self-cleaning oven, but for now I am enjoying what I have :) Tomorrow before I leave for a slumberparty I have to clean the kitchen walls and wash the floors!!! Wish me luck :)