Checking in...

I had a near death experience on Saturday on my way to work. It was really scary and I know that someone was watching over me. Without boring you with the details, basically the bozo in front of me stopped in the middle lane of a highway cuz he missed his exit. He just sat there and I couldn't move. Cars were coming up behind me at 80 mph and almost wrecked trying to avoid hitting us. I was never so scared in my life. I screamed at the top of my lungs. I don't know how we all got through that without getting hurt. So, yea, my prayers have multiplied tremendously since then. Things are in perspective. I guess I was at a point that I needed a good thorough reorganization of priorities. Definitely got the message.

When I got to work, I was trembling and then was told I had to give two 20 minute presentations. Here's the powerpoint, you have about 15 minutes to figure out what you are going to say. Luckily I had to shove my fears aside and get to work. It helped but it's stayed with me and won't be going away any time soon.

Tristan started his IEP (individualized education plan) about 3 weeks ago. I hope he is doing well, but it's scary when you see his homework go backwards in learning level. On the bright side, we have no problems getting through homework as he is confident and can figure most of it out on his own. His papers have smiley faces and he gets good grades. I think his confidence is increasing. I am praying each week that he catches up. For the first time this year, he got all smiley faces on his behavior card. He got a prize for that like I promised. We now have SpongeBob operation game. He was every excited. We have begun playing board games on a more regular basis and he seems to be loving it.

Taylor is still doing well in school. Her best friend, Ariane, is in a family planning class or some sort of Home Economics course and she had to be a mother for a weekend. Let me tell you, they sure have come a long way from carrying eggs around as was the case when I was in high school. She had a computerized doll that was linked to a bracelet she had to wear all weekend. She could not be separated from her baby or the teacher would know. We had plans to take the girls to see a movie and the haunted house downtown. So, we had to take the baby. (My sister-in-law offered to baby sit but she could not be separated from it.) It cries to be fed and have its diaper changed. It had two diapers with pads and it knew when the appropriate diaper was on. You couldn't let its head fall backwards or it would let out a blood curdling scream. When it ate, it made slurping sounds. It would giggle. While we were in line for the haunted house, we had to feed it. So we realized we would have to change it in the house. (It takes about 30 minutes to go through it.) And we did. We walked all around bricktown and we sure did get stares. What is that young girl doing with a baby and one of another race at that?! It was really funny to see the stares. You sure can see how many people judge first before knowing the whole story. It was a definite learning experience for all of us. That baby cried all night. My mommy ears turned on every time but the girls took care of it. Ariane seem pleased and thought it was all fun. I told her that it needed one other feature to make it more realistic...it needed to poop and puke. Then she might not have thought it was so fun! LOL

Chance is working off and on. He's still worried about everything. I enrolled him in a computer course at work. I am hoping he will stay enrolled and I can get him through some college. He needs some confidence that he can hit the books too.

I have been thoroughly enjoying my Leadership class. We have our third meeting on Friday. We had our first at the OKC Art Museum and I got to see the Roman exhibit from the Louvre. That was freakin awesome!!! I learned so much. We had a guided tour and other people followed our tour around to learn about the pieces. I don't know if I will ever make it to see the Louvre in person, but now I can say I've seen at least part of it. They actually come and place the pieces for the exhibit when they send those around. We learned how they were shipped and boxed and everything. Fascinating. I would never would have seen that exhibit if it hadn't been for the leadership class. We also saw the Chihuly glass exhibition. That was awesome too. All hand blown and he only has one eye. It was absolutely beautiful. Here's a link: http://www.okcmoa.com/exhibitions/dalechihuly-theexhibition Here's a direct link to his website: http://www.chihuly.com/ You can see some of his glass stuff on that. I highly recommend you visit the museum to see it.

Our second meeting was held at the OK History Museum. That was interesting too. Got to see alot of native american history which was my favorite. We did not have much time or a guided tour, so I did not get to see much. But the curator of the museum, gave us a wonderful presentation about one of the artists and tied it to a leadership lesson. It was very interesting. The table in the conference room was gigantic and wooden and modeled after a feather. It was made in that room for the board of directors and it is too big to be removed from the room. Beautiful is all I can say.

I am learning about leadership too. We have speakers and bonding activities to reflect upon at the end of the day. I am so glad I applied for the program. I wish I could attend all the classes in the future too! They do tell us we will be involved with class II so we will see.

Still haven't worked on that paper. I owe about $10,000 to the library right now for all the books I still have. I just can't get to writing it. I don't want to. Really, just don't want to. I need some motivation to sit down and do it. I just can't. I feel like the little guy lost in the desert who is crawling for water. He see it over the hill and then it's an illusion. I see my written paper but when I get ready to crawl, I cramp up. Ugh.

And then there's Weight Watchers. So I learned alot, but found it increasingly difficult to keep going each week and talk about food. I have never talked about food so much in my life. It was so repetitive. I got the picture and learned how to eat properly. I have the books and the points calculator and even the WW scale. But going to those meetings just were not my thing. And my problem has never really been overeating (which they talk about alot). My problem is eating properly. Putting back that chocolate and for heaven's sake, those dang cokes. So, I made a big decision to take that monthly fee and apply it to a gym membership. I found an all women's gym that is open 24/7. I absolutely love it!!!! I joined on October 1. I have been trying to go 3 times a week. I do 30 - 40 minutes on the treadmill (I can actually go longer than that but try to keep my time away from home down) and then I do weights for another 30 minutes. I am being careful with my back. They also have classes, tanning and massage chairs that are all included in the monthly fee. NO contracts or anything. I can pay for whichever month I want without penalty. But of course, I'm automatically deducting. I can't even begin to tell you how good it feels to work out again. This has been better than any WW. I gained some of my weight back before I joined the gym and I really haven't been super attempting to count points or anything. Just been eating regular. So my weight has maintained. But I can feel my body shifting around. The exercise is working. Did I tell you how much I love it???? I so do!!! I didn't get to go 3 times last week but hopefully I can stay on schedule this week. I plan to go back on Thursday but there is an evening work event. I don't really want to go but if I get asked, I may have to. Hoping that doesn't happen.

Well I guess I will stop for now. I need to check my class and try to grade some. I am pretty worn out tonight. Work has been crazy.

Looking forward to Caden's party and the holidays. Can't wait to see everyone. I see potato salad....Yummmmmmmm!